On Wednesday, Freddie Mac announced that it guaranteed its second multifamily small balance loan securitization. The government-sponsored enterprise expects to guarantee approximately $109 billion in SB Certificates and plans to price them next week.

Investors have a lot more to worry about these days than the collateral damage stemming from problems in Greece and China and a bumpy U.S. stock market. Ratings analysts indicate some new energy-related risks – most notably earthquakes near “fracking” sites and a plunge in the price of oil – have emerged as potentially significant challenges to investors in real estate and to mortgage lenders. Analysts at Standard & Poor’s said in a recent client note that earthquakes in proximity to fracking sites introduce a unique risk factor into the investment equation for those with a stake in real estate located in affected regions. “In particular, determining whether or not earthquake coverage is...

Despite former Federal Housing Finance Agency Acting Director Ed DeMarco's call for comprehensive reform of the nation's housing finance system and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the analysts at Compass Point Research & Trading remain convinced "that there is neither the legislative capacity nor political will to address housing finance reform in this Congress."

A recent shift in the purchase-mortgage market share toward the government-sponsored enterprises appears to be part of seasonal home buying patterns rather than direct competition for mortgages with low downpayments.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency released final housing goals for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for 2015 through 2017 on Wednesday. It increased both the single-family low-income purchase goals and multifamily low-income goals and established a new low-income housing subgoal for small multifamily properties.

All three mortgage production channels saw solid gains in originations from the first quarter to the second quarter of 2015, but correspondents had the best of it. Correspondent lenders generated an estimated $132 billion of new mortgages during the second quarter, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance ranking and market analysis. That was up 26.9 percent from the first quarter, a few clicks faster than the overall 23.6 percent increase in production volume. The correspondent share edged...[Includes four data tables]

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have been gaining purchase-mortgage market share from the FHA in recent months, according to the Campbell/Inside Mortgage Finance HousingPulse Tracking Survey. The shifts appear to be part of seasonal home-buying patterns rather than direct competition for mortgages with low downpayments. “From our statistics, we see...

The manufactured housing industry wants the Federal Housing Finance Agency to push Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to purchase more manufactured housing loans under its forthcoming “duty-to-serve” rule. The “duty-to-serve” rule was mandated by the 2008 Housing and Economic Recovery Act to steer the government-sponsored enterprises to support underserved markets. In particular, that included manufactured housing, rural housing and affordable housing preservation. A final rule has never been implemented...

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac saw modest gains in issuance of single-family mortgage-backed securities during July, with little sign of any expanded underwriting by sellers The two GSEs generated $83.29 billion of single-family MBS last month, up 7.2 percent from June. Fannie managed only a 1.9 percent gain for the month, while Freddie volume surged 13.8 percent, which gave the company an unusually high 47.0 percent share of the GSE market. A big part of Freddie’s sharp increase in issuance came from the $8.00 billion of seasoned loans the company securitized in July. That was nearly double the volume of Freddie mortgages more than three months old that were securitized in June. Some $1.92 billion of those loans were modified....

Freddie Mac continues to unload seriously delinquent loans from its retained portfolio and unveiled plans late this week to auction off $1.2 billion of non-performing loans. The NPLs are currently serviced by Ocwen Loan Servicing, LLC. The planned sale marks Freddie’s sixth NPL auction of the year.The GSE is now marketing the nonperformers in five geographically diversified pools. Bids are due from qualified investors by Sept. 9. The sale is expected to settle in October. The government sponsored mortgage giant said the winning bidder “will be determined on the basis of economics, subject to meeting Freddie Mac’s internal reserve levels.” Credit Suisse Securities, Wells Fargo Securities, LLC, and First Financial Network are the advisors on the deal.