Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae posted a two-year low in new single-family business during the first quarter of 2018, according to a new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of loan-level mortgage-backed securities disclosures. The three agencies guaranteed a total of $268.78 billion of purchase mortgages and refinance loans during the first three months of the year. That was down 19.2 percent from the previous three-month period and ... [Includes one data chart]
Bitcoin, the internet’s virtual currency, is slowly becoming an acceptable alternative method of payment for items, including real estate. Whether it will supplant the more traditional process of purchasing a home remains to be seen. Thomas Bayles, chief executive officer of Urban Asset Group, a house-flip firm in Los Angeles, last year facilitated a record-setting purchase of a mid-century house in Eagle Rock, CA, using bitcoins. The remodeled, five-bedroom residential property in ...
A ranking of primary mortgage insurance for purchase mortgages by state in the first quarter of 2018. Includes private mortgage insurance, FHA, VA and USDA Rural Housing.
Fannie Mae last month implemented changes to its Desktop Underwriter program following a surge in acquisition mortgages with high debt-to-income ratios that caused an uproar with some private mortgage insurers. In July 2017, the GSE revised its underwriting guidelines to accept DTI ratios over 45 percent without requiring lenders to show compensating factors. As previously reported by Inside The GSEs, the change led to a surge in high-DTI activity in the second half of 2017. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac securitized $52.90 billion of mortgages with DTI ratios ranging from 46 percent to 50 percent, a 72.6 percent increase from the first six months of the year.
Fannie Mae Announces New Board Member. Christopher Herbert was elected as a director on the company’s board of directors. The GSE noted that he has extensive experience relating to housing policy and urban development. He’s been managing director for Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies since January 2015. The Final Nail in the GSE Reform Coffin: Creation of the $3B Capital Buffer? Although GSE reform appears to be dead in the current Congress, Fitch Ratings issued a report Tuesday predicting that MBS guarantors created in the future to replace Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will be on solid ground financially. As for why GSE reform failed, Fitch contends...
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