Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac issued $189.70 billion of single-family mortgage-backed securities during the second quarter of 2017, a 13.1 percent drop from the first three months of the year. A new ranking and analysis by Inside The GSEs reveals that much of the decline resulted from a slowdown among large banks and thrifts. The four banks with over $1 trillion in assets delivered just $43.23 billion of home loans into Fannie/Freddie MBS during the second quarter. That was down 29.1 percent from the previous period, knocking the group’s combined market share down from 27.9 percent in the first quarter to 22.8 percent.
With GSE reform moving up the priority list in the minds of lawmakers and industry executives, Federal Reserve Governor Jay Powell joined the conversation last week and said it’s time to act now before it’s too late. Following the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee hearing on GSE reform, Powell spoke at the American Enterprise Institute and urged lawmakers to come up with a solution while the economy is healthy. He worries that if reform doesn’t happen soon, the status quo will become comfortable. Moreover, Powell said any change would be more challenging to enact during difficult economic times.
Industry groups lauded the GSEs’ efforts to increase funding for underserved markets but recommend they add more specific activities focused on increasing loan purchases and speeding up the process. In May, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac released draft proposals on ways to grow financing for specific underserved markets under the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s duty-to-serve requirements. Those markets include manufactured housing, rural housing and preserving affordable housing for low- and moderate-income households. The National Low Income Housing Coalition said while the plans demonstrate the GSEs’ commitment to increase their impact in underserved markets, they focus largely on scoring and technical compliance.
Pricing disparity between the GSEs has almost disappeared since single-security efforts began, according to a new paper by the Urban Institute. The authors called the progress on the initiative an “unheralded success” in a paper released this week. In 2012 and 2013, Freddie’s 3, 3.5, and 4 percent coupons traded at more than a $0.30 discount to Fannie Mae’s. That number narrowed to about $0.15 in 2014 and 2015 and by early 2017 it had largely converged, said the UI. “Interestingly, the pricing disparity has all but disappeared since the single-security effort began,” said Laurie Goodman, Jim Parrott and Bing Bai, authors of the study.
A host of new GSE tools recently implemented or in the pipeline, including automated appraisals, will improve mortgage underwriting, according to Fitch Ratings. The rating service noted that alternative methods of managing and verifying data are helping Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac change the process for underwriting mortgage loans in the U.S. New approaches to things like appraisal valuation and income verification are giving the GSEs a more efficient way to assess credit risk, while reducing costs for sellers and borrowers, said Fitch. “The appraisal valuation process is evolving primarily due to the introduction of the Uniform Collateral Data Portal through which lenders electronically submit appraisal reports for conventional mortgages delivered to Fannie or Freddie,” said Fitch.
Freddie Mac recently changed the circumstances in which borrowers can use gifts and grants from a lender toward a downpayment in its Home Possible mortgage products. Currently, a lender can provide a gift or grant for a portion of or the entire downpayment, according to a spokesperson for Freddie, but that’s about to change. Last week, sellers were notified that gifts or grants from the lender would only be allowed after the borrower contributes at least 3 percent of the appraised value or purchase price. This contribution must be made from the borrower’s personal funds and/or other permitted sources of funds.
Making credit-risk transfers more attractive to real estate investment trusts by rebranding some of them as real estate mortgage investment conduits may be just what the market needs, according to a new report by Morningstar. The rating service said the change likely won’t have a negative impact on the credit risk and quality of those deals and could help the GSEs broaden their investor base. The proposed changes to Fannie Mae’s Connecticut Avenue Securities and Freddie Mac’s Structured Agency Credit Risk programs would allow REITs and some overseas investors to participate more broadly in the programs.
GSE shareholders are continuing to argue that the structure of the Federal Housing Finance Agency is unconstitutional. The topic has come up ever since a 2016 ruling found that the similarly structured Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is not constitutional. Two new cases filed within the past month in Michigan and Minnesota are asking the courts to vacate the Treasury sweep of GSE profits altogether. In late June, three GSE shareholders filed a fresh lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota. The three plaintiffs, Atif Bhatti, Tyler Whitney and Michael Carmody, also want the court to strike the...
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