Some small and medium-sized lenders continue to fear that their access to the secondary mortgage market could be hampered if the fledgling common securitization platform of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is turned over to the private sector. At this point, the CSP is a joint venture owned by the two government-sponsored enterprises with a long-term future as uncertain as that of the GSEs themselves. But there are rumors that Congress may transfer the CSP to private owners sooner than expected. The vehicle for such a transfer would not be...
Five years have passed since the Federal Housing Finance Agency filed suit against 18 Wall Street firms and banks for peddling nonprime MBS to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the years leading up to the housing crisis. All of the defendants have settled or lost with one glaring exception: Royal Bank of Scotland. As for when (and if) RBS will settle, that’s a different and complicated matter. The bank is presently owned by the British government, which took control of it during the financial crisis. In other words, any settlement might entail taxpayer money and cause a political controversy in the U.K. And the bill could be...
In a potential legal coup for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac shareholders, Federal Claims Court Judge Margaret Sweeney ordered the U.S. Treasury Department and Federal Housing Finance Agency to turn over another large batch of documents in relation to the Fairholme Funds Inc. v. United States, et al. net worth sweep case. Sweeney this week forced the government agencies to produce more documents, close to 60 this time, for the plaintiff’s attorneys. The agencies have attempted to keep the various memos, emails, presentations and other communications hidden under executive privilege. Shareholders say...
As the third quarter draws to a close without a single increase in interest rates from the Federal Reserve, 2016 is increasingly looking like 2015, when the Fed said it would raise rates multiple times sometime during the year, only to wait until its very last meeting before finally raising them. Similarly, the U.S. central bank said it would raise rates four times in 2016, and so far, it has yet to raise rates once this year. This week, Fed Chair Janet Yellen explicitly stated she expects a rate increase this year, as do a majority of voting members of the Fed’s Open Market Committee. However, since they decided to take a pass this time around, the Fed only has...
Nonbank loan administrators expanded their share of the mortgage servicing market during the second quarter, mostly capturing agency business abandoned by large banks, according to a new ranking and analysis by Inside Mortgage Finance. Commercial banks, savings institutions and credit unions reported a combined single-family servicing portfolio of $6.930 trillion as of the end of June, according to call reports. That was down 0.5 percent from the previous quarter despite the fact that the total depository portfolio holdings of unsecuritized mortgages increased 1.7 percent during that period. But bank, thrift and credit union loan servicing for others – typically loans held in mortgage-backed securities trusts – fell...[Includes two data tables]
Meanwhile, if you want to know where Clinton and Trump stand on the issue of homeownership in America, you can review their respective party platforms...
Thanks to booming originations the past few months – which should translate into higher guaranty fee income – Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are likely to post their strongest profits of the year in the third quarter, according to interviews conducted by Inside Mortgage Finance this week. But it’s not just higher loan production that should allow profits to soar – it’s the fact that the yield on the 10-year Treasury now stands at 1.69 percent, 21 basis points higher than June 30. The 10-year rate is...
An increasing share of purchase mortgages have missed their scheduled closing dates in recent months, according to the latest Campbell/Inside Mortgage Finance HousingPulse Tracking Survey. Many of the delays are tied to a shortage of appraisers as home sale activity increased during the spring and summer. Just before the start of the spring home-buying season, the on-time share of closings was at high levels for mortgage-financed purchases. Some 76.6 percent of purchases in April with a low downpayment mortgage securitized by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac closed on time, based on a three-month moving average. The on-time closing share has declined...
Freddie Mac is partnering with two lenders for a mortgage pilot program that will consider a wider range of underwriting criteria, including income from seasonal work, to help promote homeownership in diverse communities. The pilot, based on certain borrower characteristics, was launched with New American Funding, headquartered in Dallas, and Las Vegas-based Alterra Home Loans. It was announced this week during the national convention of the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals. The NAHREP said the narrow definitions of creditworthiness make it especially difficult for minority and first-time borrowers to qualify for and obtain a mortgage. The two nonbank lenders, which specialize in serving the Hispanic community and low-income borrowers, will build...
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