Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could suffer losses of nearly $2 billion on the fair value of their assets if interest rates fluctuate upward by just a single percentage percent, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s official watchdog. A white paper issued this week by the FHFA’s Office of Inspector General found that despite moves by the Finance Agency and the Treasury to require the two government-sponsored enterprises to substantially downsize their mortgage asset portfolios, interest rate risk remains a “significant concern.” “The increasingly illiquid nature of the GSEs’ mortgage asset portfolios presents...
Nationstar appears to be the winning bidder on the Taylor Bean & Whitaker MSR pacakge. Meanwhile: Ed DeMarco, the most powerful man in mortgage finance today?
An FHA risk-sharing proposal that almost got off the ground in the early 1990s has sparked lawmakers’ interest during a recent Senate hearing as one way to reduce FHA losses and taxpayer risk exposure while allowing private capital to reenter the market. Testifying before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs on FHA reforms, Teresa Bryce Bazemore, president of Radian Guaranty, urged lawmakers to authorize the FHA to enter into risk-sharing arrangements with private mortgage insurers. Bazemore said the proposal is intended to prevent future FHA borrowers from ...
The recent increase in mortgage insurance premium (MIP) and other policy changes to strengthen the FHA Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund are causing borrowers with better credit to shift from FHA to conventional financing, according to a new Campbell/Inside Mortgage Finance HousingPulse Tracking Survey. The monthly survey of real estate agents found that FHA remains an option for borrowers who have limited cash resources and tainted credit. However, given their individual circumstances and FHA’s recent policy changes, many would take out a conventional loan if they could qualify. With a low 3.5 percent downpayment requirement, FHA appears to ...
Expressing its views and estimates for the Fiscal Year 2014 budget, the House Financial Services Committee remains concerned that the FHA has not fully exercised its powers to protect its mortgage insurance fund and urged the agency to begin charging additional user fees to strengthen its financial footing. Apparently, there is a hitch in that proposal. It seems the Department of Housing and Urban Development does not charge user fees and to do so would probably need clear authorization from Congress, said a HUD spokesman. It is not clear what the committee meant by ...
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