Despite the vocal support of progressives, especially advocates of principal reduction of GSE-held loans, Rep. Watt’s nomination to head FHFA is far from a sure thing.

Any successor to the GSEs that operates with a federal guarantee should charge the same guaranty fee price for all sellers, regardless of size, the trade group says.

We continue to hear reports that certain commercial banks are discouraging their residential loan officers to take the state test and get licensed.

Speculators have been gobbling up GSE junior preferred and common, hoping for a payout down the road tied to either the resumption of dividends or money that might come from a recovery fund.

The auction market for nonperforming mortgages is picking up a full head of steam this year and could be bolstered by securitizations, according to investors and advisors who play in that space. Gordon Albrecht, executive vice president of FCI Lender Services, said he has a hedge fund client that is presently working on a $40 million securitization of nonperforming residential loans. Albrecht said he could not identify the client, though he noted that Wells Fargo is involved in the transaction along with a foreign bank. He added...

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...

Even a fraction of the shadow inventory falling into foreclosure could considerably swell HUD and GSE ownership of REO properties.

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.