New FHFA Director Mark Calabria singled out GSE "charter creep" as something he would like to eliminate. But he was short on specifics. Still, an FHFA probe of the matter has been launched.
The National Association of Realtors this week picked apart FHFA's plan to recapitalize the GSEs and release them from conservatorship. NAR, by the way, favors a model where the GSEs are morphed into shareholder-owned utilities.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the first quarter of 2019 earned a combined net income of roughly $3.8 billion — all of which is likely to be sent as dividend to the Treasury Department.
Speculation continues to mount regarding whether Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will be allowed to retain more capital. But will such a move be a precursor to a "recap and release" plan?
The sharp downturn in purchase-money loans going into Fannie and Freddie MBS was accompanied by an even bigger drop in deliveries of loans with private mortgage insurance.
The flow of single-family home loans into agency mortgage-backed securities fell sharply in the first quarter of 2019. Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae produced $231.38 billion of new single-family MBS during the first three months of 2019, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance ranking and analysis.