Mortgage insurance stocks have been rallying the past month, climbing to 52-week highs, thanks in part to the “Trump rally” and the belief that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have a future after all. Six short months ago, the sector was in the tank with investors fearing that another cut in FHA premiums would erode their market share. The premium cut didn’t happen, and there’s a growing belief that the incoming Trump administration will favor the private sector – and not the FHA – taking on more risk ...
The rise in mortgage rates after the November election gave many lenders the blues, triggering a plunge in near-term expectations for loan demand as well as a big drop in anticipated profit margins over the next three months, according to the latest lender survey from Fannie Mae. Forty six percent of respondents expect profits to decrease. Lenders’ profit margin outlook now is the worst in three years, according to the government-sponsored enterprise. “Lenders reported a significant net negative ...
The share of all homeowners underwater on their mortgage dropped in the third quarter of 2016 and is now at a fraction of what it was at its high-water mark, according to the latest data from Zillow. The firm found that negative equity dropped to 10.9 percent in the third quarter, down from 12.1 percent in the second and 13.4 percent a year ago. Nationally, there were fewer than 5.3 million homeowners underwater on their mortgage during the third quarter, a level far removed from the peak ...
Lenders that deliver loans to agency buyers and non-agency buyers could benefit from standards developed by the Structured Finance Industry Group and the Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization. SFIG detailed the data standardization effort in a green paper released last week. The Wall Street group noted that a lack of accepted standards can lead to confusion and disagreement between counterparties and service providers, particularly when data are calculated or ...
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are expected to closely examine the mortgage servicing business model and wrap up their analysis of alternative credit scoring options in 2017, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s “scorecard” for the GSEs, which outlines specific priorities for the duo.Access to credit has been a much-debated topic of late, and many have called for the GSEs to explore alternative models to the traditional FICO scoring system. Industry insiders argue that the GSE credit profile has remained elevated even though there’s been a significant drop in seller repurchase risk and the housing market has recovered. Under its goals of increasing access to credit, which include access for underserved...
In its much anticipated duty-to-serve final rule issued last week, the Federal Housing Finance Agency gave the green light for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to begin pilot programs for manufactured housing “chattel loans.” Although duty-to-serve was mandated eight years ago to make sure the GSEs support three underserved markets, (such as manufactured housing,) it was never implemented. The other markets are affordable housing preservation and rural housing. A proposed rule was issued in December 2015 and it’s taken a year to issue the final rule. The FHFA sifted through hundreds of comments on the proposed rule earlier this year, most focusing on the need for greater GSE support when it comes to manufactured housing lending.
The Federal Housing Finance Agency came up short when it comes to supervising the GSEs to ensure a “safe and sound operation,” according to a Federal Housing Finance Agency Office of Inspector General report released late last week. The IG also suggested that the FHFA follow the lead of other federal financial regulators with stronger supervisory standards including the Federal Reserve System and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. “Among our findings was that FHFA had difficulty completing its planned targeted examinations over four supervisory cycles from 2012 through 2015 and that the number of targeted examinations planned and completed during each supervisory cycle has fallen since 2012 for Freddie Mac and has diminished significantly for Fannie Mae,” said the IG.
With the Home Affordable Modification Program expiring in about a week, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac recently introduced the Flex Modification foreclosure prevention program to take its place in helping delinquent borrowers get back on their feet. The Federal Housing Finance Agency said that the new program is based on lessons learned from loan modification programs created during the housing crisis. The Flex Modification is a hybrid of three different types of programs, including HAMP. “The Flex Modification program also reflects input received over the course of extensive engagement with lenders, mortgage insurers, consumer advocates, and other stakeholders,” said FHFA Deputy Director Sandra Thompson, adding that by avoiding...
Freddie Mac this week issued a new risk-sharing transaction backed by seasoned mortgages. The Seasoned Credit Risk Trust 2016-001 is comprised of all modified, seasoned reperforming first-lien residential mortgages funded by the issuance of asset-backed certificates totaling $934 million.The SCRT securitization program is a key part of Freddie’s efforts to reduce less liquid assets in its mortgage-related investments portfolio and shed credit and market risk. The GSE announced in July that it would be expanding its reperforming loan program by introducing the seasoned loans. This includes option adjustable-rate mortgages as well as loans that were originally option ARMs but have been modified through a Home Affordable Refinance Program or other modification.
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