The primary mortgage-insurance market held up a little better than overall first-lien originations during the first quarter of 2017, and the FHA program appeared to gain ground, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance ranking and analysis. A total of $165.84 billion of first-lien mortgages produced during the first quarter of this year carried some form of primary MI coverage. That was down 20.6 percent from the fourth quarter, but overall first-lien originations fell by 33.6 percent during that period. The share of new production with MI coverage jumped to 43.1 percent, the highest it’s been since the end of 2008. The key factor for the greater MI penetration was...[Includes three data tables]

During the hearing Thursday, Sen. Bob Corker, R-TN, called “the whole issue of them running out of resources” baseless.

Federal Housing Finance Director Mel Watt this week expressed strong reluctance to allow Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to be forced to take another draw on their Treasury line of credit. “FHFA has explicit statutory obligations to ensure that each enterprise ‘operates in a safe and sound manner’ and fosters ‘liquid, efficient, competitive and resilient national housing finance markets,’” Watt testified in a hearing at the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Development Committee. “To ensure that we meet these obligations, we cannot risk...

BlackRock this week joined with most other industry participants recommending that housing-finance reform include an explicit government guarantee for mortgage-backed securities backed by conventional home loans. The asset manager also highlighted the need to respect the rights of investors, ensure fungibility of the existing government-sponsored enterprise MBS in any new system and provide transparency at all levels. “This includes transparency regarding loan origination, securitization, and access to the secondary market,” said BlackRock. “We believe the role of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as they exit conservatorship should be clearly defined in any new housing finance system.” The firm suggested...

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac released a draft proposal this week on how they plan to boost underserved manufactured housing, rural housing and affordable housing preservation markets for low and moderate-income families over the next three years. Based on a federal law, the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s duty-to-serve rule requires the government-sponsored enterprises to increase financing in those three areas. The plans released this week are part of an extended implementation process. A large part of the duty-to-serve conversation has focused...

Watt’s comments on building capital did not move the share price of Fannie/Freddie common very much...

The Structured Finance Industry Group has voiced concerns about what information might become publicly available…

PHH's new CEO, Robert Crowl, has a termination package that could be worth $4.54 million…

The former Fannie Mae economist suggested the Fed should decide to have a measured reduction in its MBS holdings…

Fannie and Freddie are being urged to bring liquidity to the “chattel” loan market…