The new refinance program being developed for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac borrowers with high loan-to-value ratios will not be available for homeowners who have already used the Home Affordable Refinance Program, according to the regulator of the two government-sponsored enterprises. The Federal Housing Finance Agency this year directed Fannie and Freddie to develop a replacement program for HARP, which will sunset at the end of 2016. MBS investors have been concerned...[Includes one data table]
Mortgage securitization made a small comeback in 2015, but softness in the non-agency MBS sector and higher guaranty fees required by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac still played a huge influence in the market, according to a new Inside MBS & ABS analysis. An estimated $1.210 trillion of newly-originated home loans were pooled in mortgage securities last year, representing 69.7 percent of the $1.735 trillion in new first-lien originations. That was up slightly from the 67.8 percent back in 2014, which ranked as the lowest securitization rate since 2004, when just 62.6 percent of new originations were securitized. One issue is...[Includes one data table]
The average daily trading volume in agency MBS climbed to $201.4 billion in February, the best reading in nine months and a sign that investors will still flock to government-backed products in times of uncertainty, especially extreme uncertainty. Late this week, market watchers expressed their concerns about the terrorist bombings in Belgium as well as continued worries about China’s slowing economy and sagging oil prices. In short order, they piled into MBS issued by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae. Barry Habib, who runs MBS Highway, a rate-lock service, told...
Five mortgage industry veterans – including two who worked in the Obama White House – this week floated a new plan aimed at preserving the government guaranty on conventional MBS and ending, once and for all, the uncertainly plaguing the secondary market. In a new white paper entitled “A More Promising Road to GSE Reform,” the authors aim to preserve the government-backed MBS market while merging Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into a new institution called the National Mortgage Reinsurance Corp. But the proposal might be...
The impact of the TRID integrated-disclosure rule that took effect on Oct. 3 seems to have had little impact on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. For now, the government-sponsored enterprises are focused on whether sellers are using the correct forms, not whether there are mistakes. The GSEs have amended their contractual obligations with their customers to let them know that the customer is responsible for any potential or actual loss as a result of TRID violations. “So they’re basically turning what was a repurchase obligation into an indemnification obligation,” said...
“Mortgage g-fees should only be used as a buffer against mortgage defaults, not as a piggy-bank for increased government spending,” said NAR chief Salomone.
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