As a group, banks and thrifts reported net earnings of $4.76 billion on their mortgage-banking activity during the third quarter, a 42 percent drop from the second quarter.

In letters to two government agencies, a group of 10 Democrat lawmakers said the FHFA should continue to provide access to government-sponsored enterprise MBS guaranties and the Department of Housing and Urban Development should allow FHA mortgage insurance in such communities.

Freddie Launches Broker Training Program to Boost REO Sales. Freddie Mac announced this week it has launched a new program to train real estate agents how to better move real estate-owned homes through its HomeSteps sales unit. Freddie’s new Certified Community Stabilization Expert program is an eight-hour online course developed by San Diego-based Community Asset Solutions to teach the latest lessons for selling REO homes, according to Chris Bowden, senior vice president, HomeSteps. The CCSE program curriculum is designed to help real estate professionals “work more effectively with nonprofits and local governments, take advantage of public initiatives for maintaining properties and create new outreach efforts for owner-occupant buyers, especially low- and moderate-income homebuyers,” said Bowden.

JPMorgan Chase twice in as many weeks announced multi-billion dollar deals to settle legal disputes with numerous parties – including Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and their regulator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency – involving residential mortgage-backed securities. This week, the Department of Justice, along with other federal and state agencies – including the Federal Housing Finance Agency – reached a $13 billion settlement with JPMorgan, which acknowledged making misrepresentations about billions of dollars in MBS sold…

A senior Obama administration official this week flatly rejected the notion of private investors purchasing the mortgage-backed securities business of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. White House Economic Advisor Gene Sperling noted while speaking at a Washington, DC, conference that the White House won’t get behind a $52 billion proposal by Fairholme Capital Management to purchase and spin off the GSEs’ insurance business.

Lobbyists and analysts who track the market are unanimous on one key issue: GSE loan limits. From what we’re told, Watt will shelve any thought of lowering the Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac mortgage limit in 2014.

Members of the Federal Open Market Committee kicked around various approaches to winding down the central bank’s third installment of quantitative easing during their policy meeting last month, but ultimately didn’t budge the ship off its bearings. Recently released minutes of the Oct. 29-30 FMOC policy meeting revealed that participants “generally expected that the data would prove consistent with the committee’s outlook for ongoing improvement in labor-market conditions and would thus warrant trimming the pace of purchases in coming months.” However, committee members also considered...

Industry observers who closely follow the GSEs predict that other private-equity firms and hedge funds will continue to buy the preferred and common shares of Fannie and Freddie, believing they can flip the stock for a quick profit or receive a pay-out down the road.

Any policies employed by federal regulators that restrict mortgage lending in localities that use eminent domain to seize underwater mortgages would violate anti-discrimination laws, according to a group of House Democrats. In letters to two government agencies, a group of 10 Democrat lawmakers led by Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison said the Federal Housing Finance Agency should continue to provide access to government-sponsored enterprise MBS guaranties and the Department of Housing and Urban Development should allow FHA mortgage insurance in such communities. “To deny such access would be illegal under the Fair Housing Act and would violate credit discrimination laws,” according to a draft of the letters obtained by Inside MBS & ABS. An FHFA spokesman confirmed...

At a Senate Banking Committee hearing, Sen. Robert Menendez, D-NJ, criticized FHFA Acting Director Ed DeMarco for his plan to reduce both the conforming loan limit and the high-cost limit.