Home prices are improving at a rapid pace throughout the nation, sparking bidding wars in certain markets, according to several different indices. But this rise in “home equity” is also spurring talk that the two largest players in residential finance – Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac – could be sitting on large unrealized gains in both their MBS and whole loan portfolios. One veteran MBS investor told Inside MBS & ABS that home values have improved so much over the past 120 days that the government-sponsored enterprises may be looking at “monster” increases in the value of their holdings. “Keep in mind that these two are sitting on loans where a year ago the loan-to-value ratio was 115 percent,” said this investor. “But most of this stuff isn’t underwater anymore. If [the GSEs] re-calculate their reserves, they will see some huge gains.” In its 10-Q filing for the first quarter, Fannie reported...
A Senate bill filed last week by a Georgia Republican would wind down Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and create a transitional mortgage program that would be sold to the private sector within a decade of the proposed legislation’s enactment. The Mortgage Finance Act of 2013, S. 1048, by Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-GA, reprises his proposed legislation of the same name from 2011. The bill would replace the two government-sponsored enterprises with a single Mortgage Finance Agency. The MFA created under S. 1048 would be...
According to industry sources, the FHA recently sent out administrative letters to a handful of residential lenders. Meanwhile, yet another new subprime originator has emerged.
Through the first quarter of 2013, 1.1 million borrowers have received permanent HAMP modifications, well below the 3 million to 4 million the Obama administration projected when launching the program in 2009.
The revised rule excludes from the calculation of points and fees paid by a consumer to a mortgage broker when that payment has already been counted toward the points-and-fees thresholds as part of the finance charge.
Legislation introduced last week by a Senate Republican would revoke the charters of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and create a new Mortgage Finance Agency for the securitization of single-family and multifamily mortgages. Meanwhile, a separate bipartisan Senate bill still in the works would also dispense with the existing two government-sponsored enterprises while building a new one. Filed on May 23 by Sen. Johnny Isakson, the Mortgage Finance Act of 2013 is patterned on legislation the Georgia Republican proposed in 2011. It would put the GSEs into “irrevocable receivership,” with the Federal Housing Finance Agency tasked as their receiver no later than 18 months after enactment of the bill. “Immediately upon placement of the enterprises into receivership, the FHFA shall commence...
Consumer advocate Ralph Nader doesn’t exactly have a seat at the mortgage reform table, but that isn’t stopping him from asking the Treasury Department to do something to protect what he calls “the already financially injured common shareholders” of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. In a recent letter to Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, Nader blames a host of senior government officials – including Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke – for misleading investors about the financial health of Fannie and Freddie just months before they were seized by the federal government in September 2008. Nader, a one-time shareholder in the government-sponsored enterprises, is pushing...
Mark Savitt, president of the National Association of Independent Housing Professionals, told Inside Mortgage Finance that including “lender paid” compensation to brokers in the 3 percent cap is “double counting.
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