With mortgage interest rates touching 50-year lows, the volume of new business at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac struggled to gain positive traction during the third quarter, according to a new market analysis and ranking based on the Inside Mortgage Finance GSE MarketScope. The two government-sponsored enterprises churned out $177.2 billion of new single-family mortgage-backed securities during the three months ending in September. That was up 14.3 percent from the second quarter, but it still ranked as the second-lowest production level since financial markets tanked at the end of 2008. And it left GSE single-family business volume so...(Includes one data chart)
The Federal Housing Finance Agency is looking for public input on two separate proposals that could change the way Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac servicers are compensated.This week, the FHFA issued a discussion paper detailing proposed alternatives for a GSE servicing compensation model that will benefit servicers, consumers and investors.
The average fee charged by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to lenders rose last year, while payments collected on the Home Affordable Refinance Program contributed to the GSEs’ bottom line, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency.The third-annual FHFA study found that the average total guarantee fee charged by Fannie and Freddie on single-family mortgages was 26 basis points in 2010, compared to 22 bps in 2009. When HARP loans were excluded, the FHFA said the total average g-fee increased to 25 bps in 2010 from 21 bps in 2009.
Upset at what they perceive as being kept out of the loop as the White House and the Federal Housing Finance Agency look to jumpstart the GSEs’ underperforming refinance program, House Democrats are dealing themselves into the process starting with a meeting with the FHFA’s head next week.Reps. Dennis Cardoza, D-CA, and Elijah Cummings, D-MD, are “tentatively scheduled” to sit down with FHFA Acting Director Edward DeMarco on Oct. 6 to discuss the lawmakers’ ideas on how to best improve the two-year-old Home Affordable Refinance Program, according to a Cardoza spokesman.
Conforming loan limits will edge lower this weekend and likely have a bigger impact on the FHA market than on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac business, according to a new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis. Starting Oct. 1, the “emergency” conforming limits that were based on 125 percent of area median housing prices will be cranked down to “permanent” limits based on 115 percent of area median prices. That will lower the top high-cost market limit for single-family properties in the lower 48 states from $729,750 to $625,500. In the FHA market, there were some $2.39 billion of home loans exceeding $625,500 originated during...(Includes one data chart)
In a proposal that could reshape the economics and competitive landscape of the mortgage industry, the Federal Housing Finance Agency this week proposed two alternatives for servicing compensation on future Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac business that could end up being the model for the market beyond the government-sponsored enterprises.“As the recent problems in managing mortgage delinquencies suggest, the current servicing compensation model was not designed for current market conditions,” said FHFA Acting Director Edward DeMarco. “The goal of this joint initiative is to explore alternative models for single-family mortgage servicing compensation that...
The Federal Housing Finance Agency found itself on the defensive this week following a rapid-fire series of highly critical reports issued by its inspector general that questioned the agency’s capacity to oversee Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac effectively, as well as its decisions in specific cases. The FHFA Office of Inspector General said late last week that the FHFA’s examination program, the primary means by which it supervises and regulates the government-sponsored enterprises, faces “capacity and transparency shortfalls.” “The agency has too few examiners to ensure the efficiency and effectiveness of...
The supply of mortgage debt outstanding continued to decline in the second quarter of 2011, reaching levels not seen in nearly five years. The Federal Reserve reported that single-family mortgage debt totaled $10.396 trillion as of the end of June, down 0.5 percent from the end of the previous quarter. It marked the 13th consecutive quarterly decline in the mortgage servicing business, which has shrunk by $783.2 billion since peaking in the first quarter of 2008 at $11.179 trillion. The only sector of the market that’s growing is the Ginnie Mae program, where the supply of the agency’s single-family mortgage securities...(Includes one data chart)
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s guarantee fee stucture continued to convey cross-subsidies from lower-risk mortgages to higher-risk mortgages but overall cross-subsidization in 2010 declined from previous years, according to a report from the Federal Housing Finance Agency. The agency said cross-subsidization in single-family guarantee fees charged by the two government-sponsored enterprises remained evident in 2010 across product types, credit score categories and loan-to-value ratio categories. “There were cross-subsidies from mortgages that posed lower credit risk, on average, to loans that posed higher credit risk. The greatest...
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