A large and potentially lucrative RFP issued several months ago by FHFA regarding its strategic plan for taking the GSEs to the next stage in their evolution has yet to be awarded.
Underwater homeowners who have remained current on their payments will be able to relinquish their houses and cancel their debt under the terms of a new GSE policy change to take effect in March.
An Obama administration official stressed that the White House is working to craft a comprehensive plan for housing finance reform but wants input from industry participants.tasked with crafting a plan to reform the government-sponsored enterprises provided a strong response yesterday to criticism of the White House’s lack of progress on GSE reform.
Although Fannie Mae has set purchase limits on how much production newly approved seller/servicers can sell to the GSE, Freddie Mac has shied away from such caps.
At least one top-five ranked residential servicer is planning to offer for sale a decent-sized package of mostly nonperforming servicing rights over the next month.
Mortgage production volume increased modestly during the fourth quarter of 2012, thanks largely to continuing gains by a number of mid-sized lenders, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance ranking and analysis. An estimated $495.0 billion in new single-family mortgages were originated during the final three months of 2012, up 2.1 percent from the previous quarter. Including a slightly revised estimate for the third quarter, total mortgage originations hit $1.835 trillion during 2012 – a solid 24.8 percent gain over the previous year. That made 2012 the second-strongest year since the housing market began to come unglued back in 2007. It’s no surprise that agency programs continued...[Includes two data charts]
Residential lenders that are relatively new to the seller/servicer ranks of Fannie Mae continue to gripe about the purchase limits the GSE has placed on them, causing the agency to spell out its reasoning in an online commentary. According to a recent message posted to Fannie’s website by Executive Vice President and Chief Risk Officer John Nichols, the caps the GSE placed on new customers – nonbanks primarily – were caused by what the company calls a “significant shift in the composition of our customer base and the emergence of many new originating institutions with whom we have done little or no business.” He adds: “This rapid change in the marketplace prompted...
The agency share of mortgage originations is expected to remain elevated for years to come due to profits at the government-sponsored enterprises, increasing home prices, a lack of non-agency production, and the new ability-to-repay rule, according to industry participants. The factors have combined to reduce the push for the Obama administration and Congress to take action on GSE reform. The most recent impediment to GSE reform appears to be new profits reported by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, along with expected profitable quarters going forward due to repurchase settlements, home price appreciation and other positive trends. “The Treasury Department has...
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