A bill filed in the Senate two weeks ago would require mortgage servicers to respond to a short-sale offer within 30 days and make a final decision on acceptance within 60 days of receiving a purchase offer. The Stopping Ongoing Lender Delays (SOLD) Act, S. 3177, sponsored by Sen. Dean Heller, R-NV, would amend the Truth in Lending Act to require servicers to provide prompt responses to homeowners seeking to refinance or “for other purposes” including short sales. “By placing a shot clock on these decisions, it will reduce the amount of time it takes to sell a property, improve the likelihood that the transaction will close, and reduce the number of foreclosures in Nevada and across the country,” Heller said in a Senate floor speech on May 15. “Stability in the housing market is critical for long-term growth.”

Although at least one Senate Republican shows interest in a plan to expand the Home Affordable Refinance Program, the outlook for Congressional action remains doubtful and House Democrats are pushing the Federal Housing Finance Agency to make further HARP changes administratively. During a Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee hearing last week on legislation to expand HARP, Sen. Bob Corker, R-TN, said he was open to the proposal. “I hope that we’ll have a real mark-up on this bill,” he said. Senate Democrats Robert Menendez (NJ) and Barbara Boxer (CA) have introduced legislation...

Guarantee fees on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac single-family mortgage-backed securities have been edging higher over the past year and in April took a 10 basis point leap higher, but the timetable for future increases is unclear. In April, the government-sponsored enterprises implemented a 10 bp increase in guarantee fees that was mandated by Congress as a way to pay for an extension of a cut in payroll taxes. All of the added revenue from the fee hike, which will remain in effect for 10 years, will go to the U.S. Treasury and not cover Fannie and Freddie credit losses or count toward the GSEs’ obligations...

Real estate industry groups are urging the FHA to align a forthcoming proposed rule for private transfer fees with a final rule recently adopted by the Federal Housing Finance Agency. In a joint letter to Acting FHA Commissioner Carol Galante, the National Association of Realtors and the Institute of Real Estate Management expressed support for the FHFA rule on transfer-fee covenants and asked that a mortgagee’s compliance with the FHFA rule be deemed as compliance with the FHA’s own rule regarding such covenants. The two groups urged the FHA to ...

Freddie Mac announced this week that investors in certain of its mortgage-backed securities would see an unexpected increase in prepayment speeds after the government-sponsored enterprise resolved “certain contractual matters” with one of its seller/servicers. Bank of America was the issuer of the $1.29 billion of affected MBS pools, which were issued between July 2009 and June 2011, according to an Inside Mortgage Finance analysis. Freddie Mac said the total amount to be repurchased is $330 million, which would represent a small fraction of the $8.1 billion in outstanding...(Includes one data chart)

A costly difference of interpretation between the Mortgage Guaranty Insurance Corp. and Freddie Mac over a pool insurance dispute has prompted the mortgage insurer to file suit against the government-sponsored enterprise and its regulator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Filed earlier this month in the U.S. District Court of Milwaukee, where the company is based, the legal dispute concerns differing readings of the “aggregate loss limit” for insurance policies MGIC provides on 11 pools of Freddie loans. The aggregate loss limit is about $535 million higher under Freddie’s...

The two GSEs divulged not so wildly divergent earnings during the first quarter of 2012. Fannie Mae posted its first free-and-clear profit since being drafted into government conservatorship some 3½ years ago while Freddie’s positive net income wasn’t enough to honor its dividend obligation and it was forced to ask taxpayers for further fiscal life-support. One year after it posted a $6.5 billion net loss, Fannie reported $2.7 billion net income during the first quarter, following to a net loss of $2.4 billion in the fourth quarter of 2011. Freddie actually reported net income in the first quarter and the fourth quarter, $577 million and $619 million respectively, but not enough to repay $1.8 billion in preferred stock dividends for the first three months of 2012.

Freddie Mac’s new chief executive is expected to have his work cut out for him when he takes possession of the company’s corner office starting next week, industry insiders say, as it remains to be seen how much of a change agent anyone serving as CEO under government conservatorship can be.Last week, Freddie’s board of directors announced, with Federal Housing Finance Agency consent, the appointment of Donald Layton as CEO and elected him a member of the board.

Real estate transactions in New Castle County, DE, will no longer be exempt from transfer tax as a conveyance from a governmental entity, following a new ruling from the county’s legal counsel.The New Castle county law department found that Fannie and Freddie are federally chartered private corporations and not governmental agencies. The county’s revised interpretation of the realty transfer tax statute earlier this month, “consistent with the growing practice in other jurisdictions,” has prompted the county to enforce the distinction starting in June.

Both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac held onto their ample shares of mortgage-backed securities with something of a bump during the first quarter of 2012, according to a new Inside The GSEs analysis. The GSEs issued a combined $303.9 billion in MBS during the first quarter, a 13.9 percent increase from the fourth quarter of 2011. Compared to the first quarter of last year, Fannie and Freddie saw a 16.4 percent increase in MBS issuance. Between the two companies, Fannie and Freddie registered a plentiful 77.9 percent share of new MBS during the period that ended March 31, 2012, up from 77.1 percent the two companies held during the fourth quarter of 2011 and much farther apart from the 74.8 percent both GSEs held during the first quarter of 2011.