Although the credit characteristics of Fannie/Freddie purchase mortgages have remained fairly consistent over the year, there were some signs of loosening.
Still, one industry lobbyist warns that with Cory Booker’s election to the Senate, the White House may be willing to exert more influence to advance Mel Watt’s nomination to head the FHFA.
In the third quarter of 2013, Wells Fargo sold a mere $8.4 billion in residential mortgages to Freddie Mac, a 71.3 percent plunge in volume from the second quarter, and a figure that represents just 17 percent of what the nation’s largest lender sold to Fannie Mae. Analysts that closely follow Wells Fargo believe that the megabank’s switch in secondary market strategy was simply a matter of money, as securitizing through Fannie was more profitable than sending most of its business to Freddie, as it traditionally has. Moshe Orenbuch, an analyst and managing director at Credit Suisse, noted...
Golf is for slackers. Inside Mortgage Finance knows of at least four veteran mortgage banking executives who, after “retiring,” are looking to reenter the business.
Since the summer, the regulator has been pondering reducing the current $417,000 maximum loan limit and the “high cost” limit of $625,500. At the earliest, a change could come by January.
The low profile of the FHLBs, which has served the system so well in the past, has become a “sizable policy risk” as the relatively few people who will be directing housing finance reform know what the system does.
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