As a number of shareholder lawsuits against Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac hang in the balance, a new administration offers reasons for some to be optimistic on the cases coming to a close and the Treasury’s sweep of the government-sponsored enterprises’ profits coming to an end. During a Jan. 18 call hosted by Investors Unite, legal experts weighed in on the outlook for GSE shareholder cases just days before the inauguration. Plaintiffs have been arguing that a government bailout of the GSEs and the subsequent Treasury sweep was unnecessary and illegal. “As GSE shareholders, we are...
As one former GSE stock analyst told us: “There’s no way they can be privatized. To maintain an AAA rating they would need 25 percent (I’m guessing) capital to assets. Even at 5 percent there is not enough spread to earn a market return on capital.”
A significant number of borrowers with subprime mortgages originated in 2002 and beyond are prime targets for refinances, according to analysts at Black Knight Financial Services. More than 600,000 subprime mortgages are currently performing, according to Wesley Winter, a senior modeler at Black Knight. He said that while all of the borrowers aren’t necessarily attractive targets for refinances, there’s $10.0 billion to $25.0 billion in potential refi opportunities involving ...
NewLeaf Wholesale recently added four products to its “specialty” mortgage offerings with relatively lenient underwriting standards. The loans are aimed at borrowers who don’t qualify for conforming mortgages. The lender is now offering a jumbo mortgage that allows loan-to-value ratios up to 90.0 percent without private mortgage insurance, a residual-income product, an asset-depletion product and a product for foreign investors. The loans join NewLeaf’s other specialty products ...
Shared-equity mortgage arrangements from for-profit investors offer help for borrowers that otherwise might not qualify for a mortgage while also introducing risks, according to analysts at the Urban Institute’s Housing Finance Policy Center. In a shared-equity transaction, a third party helps a mortgage borrower purchase a home in exchange for some of the home-price appreciation. The HFPC noted that shared-equity transactions reduce the amount of money required from ...
Lenders interviewed by Inside Mortgage Finance were disappointed with the news that the MIP reduction would be scuttled, though some factions of the housing industry remain optimistic.
Mortgage default rates appeared to spike higher in the fourth quarter of 2016, according to a new analysis and servicer ranking by Inside FHA/VA Lending. Some 5.51 percent of FHA loans in Ginnie Mae mortgage-backed securities pools were reported as 30- to 60-days past due at the end of December. That was up 80 basis points from the previous quarter and was easily the highest default rate in the past three years. FHA default rates were also up in more serious delinquency categories: loans 60- to 90-days past due and those over 90-days late. The figures are based on loan count and are not seasonally adjusted. Similar trends occurred in the VA home loan guaranty program. The 30-60 category was up 41 bps, while 90+ delinquencies jumped 19 bps. The supply of Ginnie single-family MBS outstanding continued to set new records. The total, not including multifamily and FHA home-equity conversion ... [4 charts]
The Trump administration has officially set aside the 25 basis point cut in FHA annual premiums in a new mortgagee letter issued by the Department of Housing and Urban Development hours after Donald Trump was sworn in as the 45th president of the United States. Mortgagee Letter 2017-07 said that the annual-premium reduction HUD announced on Jan. 9 “has been suspended indefinitely.” Stakeholders will be notified in the event of a policy change, the letter added. The letter confirms reports earlier in the week that the FHA pricing adjustment was about to be spiked. Ben Carson, who had his confirmation hearing before the Senate Banking Committee last week, told lawmakers that he planned to work with the FHA director and financial experts to review the cut. However, the HUD secretary-designate gave no indication as to whether he favored a premium reduction that would benefit thousands of ...
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