As the former director of financial regulation studies at the Cato Institute, Mark Calabria brings a decidedly libertarian perspective to housing finance.
In what’s become a nearly annual event, the Congressional Budget Office this week suggested raising the guarantee fees charged by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and/or lowering the loan limit, in order to reduce the federal deficit.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac sellers had to repurchase just $173.34 million of home loans during the third quarter of 2018 due to defects in the origination process, according to a new analysis by Inside Mortgage Trends. It was the lowest quarterly buyback total since the two government-sponsored enterprises began filing repurchase activity disclosures with the Securities and Exchange Commission in early 2012. There was, however, a 12.9 percent increase ... [Includes two data charts]