Previously, speculation has ranged from January 1 to June 30. Mortgage bankers told Inside Mortgage Finance that whatever the FHFA decides on an implementation date, it had better do so soon.

Bucking the stampede of mortgage- and housing-industry interests campaigning against a cut in the conforming loan limits for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the American Securitization Forum is urging the Federal Housing Finance Agency to go ahead and shrink the footprint of the two government-sponsored enterprises. The ASF urged the FHFA to use its authority “to at least marginally reduce” GSE loan limits to lessen Fannie’s and Freddie’s “vice grip on the mortgage market finance market” and encourage the return of private capital. “Such marginal reductions in conforming loan limits would appropriately increase...

It’s no secret that Fannie Mae this year has been pushing some of its newly minted seller/servicers to use the cash window as opposed to swap MBS transactions, but the government-sponsored enterprise may be weighing an “either/or” policy. A spokesman for the GSE told Inside MBS & ABS that he has no knowledge of such a stern choice being given to Fannie customers, but he noted that the secondary market giant continues to wonder why so many new seller/servicers have MBS contracts, but do not actively issue. He said...

Fannie Mae said this week it is all set for meeting the 2013 risk-sharing goal set by its conservator for each of the government-sponsored enterprises after announcing back-to-back risk-sharing deals over the last two weeks. Fannie this week priced a $675 million bond offering under its Connecticut Avenue Securities series. The deal is backed by a reference pool of more than 112,000 single-family mortgages with an outstanding unpaid principal balance of $27 billion. The company late last week reported...

In the third quarter of 2013, Wells Fargo sold a mere $8.4 billion in residential mortgages to Freddie Mac, a 71.3 percent plunge in volume from the second quarter, and a figure that represents just 17 percent of what the nation’s largest lender sold to Fannie Mae.

Although the credit characteristics of Fannie/Freddie purchase mortgages have remained fairly consistent over the year, there were some signs of loosening.

Still, one industry lobbyist warns that with Cory Booker’s election to the Senate, the White House may be willing to exert more influence to advance Mel Watt’s nomination to head the FHFA.

Purchase-mortgage lending has become increasingly critical to maintaining production volume throughout the year, and there are some indicators that lenders may be starting to stretch a little more to bring in new business, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance analysis of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loan-level data. During September, purchase mortgages accounted for 42.4 percent of new business at the government-sponsored enterprises and may well surpass refinance volume by the end of the year. As recently as March 2013, purchase mortgages represented just 16.3 percent of single-family loans securitized by the two GSEs. After monthly activity peaked at $36.9 billion in August, the actual volume of purchase mortgages delivered to the GSEs did sputter...[Includes two data charts]

In the third quarter of 2013, Wells Fargo sold a mere $8.4 billion in residential mortgages to Freddie Mac, a 71.3 percent plunge in volume from the second quarter, and a figure that represents just 17 percent of what the nation’s largest lender sold to Fannie Mae. Analysts that closely follow Wells Fargo believe that the megabank’s switch in secondary market strategy was simply a matter of money, as securitizing through Fannie was more profitable than sending most of its business to Freddie, as it traditionally has. Moshe Orenbuch, an analyst and managing director at Credit Suisse, noted...

Since the summer, the regulator has been pondering reducing the current $417,000 maximum loan limit and the “high cost” limit of $625,500. At the earliest, a change could come by January.