A new policy change implemented by Fannie Mae will allow REITS, come May 1, to start investing in the GSE’s Connecticut Avenue Securities risk-transfer deals.
Both GSEs likely will be “winners” when it comes to hedging their derivative positions simply because interest rates were higher at March 31 compared to yearend.
The Department of Veterans Affairs home-loan guaranty program continued to account for most of the growth in the Ginnie Mae servicing business during the first quarter of 2018, a new Inside FHA/VA Lending analysis reveals. Total Ginnie mortgage-backed securities outstanding rose to $1.940 trillion as of the end of March, including multifamily MBS and securities backed by FHA reverse mortgages. Some $1.795 trillion of that amount was traditional single-family mortgages, a 1.1 percent increase from the end of last year. The forward-mortgage Ginnie market grew by 7.3 percent over the past 12 months. The amount of VA loans in Ginnie pools was up 13.1 percent from March 2017, nearing the $600.0 billion mark. By comparison, the FHA segment of the Ginnie market was up 4.7 percent from a year ago, hitting $1.085 trillion. Loan performance generally improved in both the ... [Charts]