The GSEs’ credit-risk sharing program has expanded over the years but not everyone has been fond of the transactions designed to transfer risk away from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Tim Howard, a former Fannie CFO, has become one of the program’s biggest critics. He said today’s credit-risk transfer program, mandated by the Federal Housing Finance Agency, removes the “normal economic discipline” of a company making its own decisions about which risks to keep and which ones to share, and on what terms. He said that the CRT transactions being done today are nothing like those done during his time at Fannie, before the start of the conservatorship.

With potential increases in loan production on the horizon, Freddie Mac introduced a pilot program aimed at getting more mortgage lenders prepared to originate manufactured housing loans and buyers prepared to purchase them. The GSE will partner with Next Step Network, a nonprofit specializing in manufactured home purchases, and eHome America, an online home counseling company, to implement the curriculum. One of the goals of the initiative is to foster new relationships with active participants in the manufactured housing industry. This includes national and local mortgage lenders.Next Step is based in Kentucky, a state heavy in manufactured housing. Freddie said the partnership with Next Step will educate prospective buyers of...

FHFA 2017 Multifamily Lending Caps Unchanged: The Federal Housing Finance Agency announced that the 2017 multifamily lending caps for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will remain at the same level they were for 2016. Each will be subject to a cap of $36.5 billion of multifamily purchase volume. The FHFA expects the multifamily finance market to be roughly the same as it was in 2016. Fannie Bans Plywood in Foreclosures. Fannie Mae recently banned the use of plywood to secure vacant homes. Beginning early this month Fannie property foreclosures must be secured by a plywood alternative, such as clear boarding.

After much speculation, the Federal Housing Finance Agency raised the 2017 conforming loan limit for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgages to $424,100. This is the first time the loan limit climbed above $417,000 in 10 years.

Fairholme Funds officials this week continued to press their case for restoring shareholder rights for private investors in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, expressing hope that the incoming Trump administration will be friendlier to their cause.

The election of Donald Trump as the 45th president may open a path out of conservatorship for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, some investors in the two government-sponsored enterprises believe. According to interviews conducted with GSE investors, industry lobbyists, trade group officials and others, a “recap and release” plan backed by the junior preferred shareholders of Fannie and Freddie could formally be presented to the Trump administration early next year. There hasn’t...

Home prices on non-distressed properties declined in October for the second straight month, with demand from homebuyers diminishing somewhat as part of a seasonal pattern, according to the latest Campbell/Inside Mortgage Finance HousingPulse Tracking Survey. Non-distressed properties sold last month had an average price of $297,300, based on a three-month moving average. That was down 1.8 percent from September and off 4.1 percent from the average price of $310,000 in August, which was the peak for the year. While prices on non-distressed properties have declined recently, prices in October were...

The baseline conforming loan limit for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will climb to $424,100 in 2017, the first such increase since 2006. The 1.7 percent increase reflected a gain in the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s expanded-data house price index at the end of the third quarter. The new ceiling for high-cost markets will...

A U.S. district court judge in New York has certified a class of investors to move forward with mortgage-related fraud claims they have brought against three large banks. MBS investors led by plaintiff New Jersey Carpenters Health Fund sued units of Wells Fargo that were acquired from Wachovia Capital Markets, Royal Bank of Scotland and Deutsche Bank that helped underwrite $7.7 billion of MBS issued by failed subprime lender NovaStar Mortgage. The plaintiffs accused...

Fairholme Funds officials this week continued to press their case for restoring shareholder rights for private investors in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, expressing hope that the incoming Trump administration will be friendlier to their cause. In Fairholme Funds Inc. v. United States, et al, the plaintiffs argue that the net worth sweep imposed by the Treasury Department and Federal Housing Finance Agency was illegal and that the two government-sponsored enterprises were not in a “death spiral” at the time of the bailout as the government claims. During a conference call this week, Fairholme CEO Bruce Berkowitz said...