The Department of Housing and Urban Development has developed a new Web-based tool which allows FHA, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to map all foreclosed properties for viewing by potential investors and homebuyers. The new mapping tool displays the location of all foreclosed homes in the agencies’ inventories, which account for nearly half of all real estate-owned or REO properties in the U.S. Communities with high foreclosure rates that are participating in HUD’s Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) will find the REO portal useful in targeting federal funds to acquire, rehabilitate or demolish these REO properties, according to department officials. The map’s consolidated graphic listing enables ...

The Obama administration is seeking ideas from stakeholders on how to thin out the FHA’s inventory of foreclosed homes, including turning the homes into rental properties to meet the growing need for affordable housing. In addition to addressing the FHA’s real estate-owned, or REO, problem, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, the Department of the Treasury and the Department of Housing and Urban Development are also calling for recommendations for similar home rental programs for REO properties held by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The agencies’ request is aimed at finding the best alternative for “maximizing value to taxpayers and increasing private investment in the housing market, including ...

The Department of Justice is reportedly investigating Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s Investors Service regarding the ratings the firms placed on non-agency mortgage-backed securities. The increased attention on the rating services follows S&P’s recent downgrade of the credit rating for the U.S., revelations by a former Moody’s employee and numerous other investigations that found problems with the ratings on non-agency MBS. In a letter sent this month to the Securities and Exchange Commission, William Harrington, a former senior vice president at Moody’s, alleged that the rating service knowingly published “worthless opinions” on non-agency MBS. ...

The consensus among mortgage market watchers is that the downgrade earlier this month of the GSEs by Standard & Poor’s will have no immediate, detrimental impact even as Fitch Ratings this week said it is keeping Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s “AAA” rating.Fitch this week also said its outlook for Fannie and Freddie’s ratings remained “stable.” The move was in concert with Fitch’s decision to keep its rating on U.S. debt at the highest grade.“A key element of the explicit support is the guarantee by the U.S. Treasury to inject funds into Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, so that each firm can avoid being considered technically insolvent by their regulator,” said the rating agency.

Short of a market miracle, the chances of other Ginnie Mae mortgage-backed securities servicers catching up with market leaders Wells Fargo and Bank of America are practically nil. Wells Fargo and BofA appear to have a solid lock on 55.0 percent of Ginnie Mae servicing outstanding based on a combined portfolio total of $634.0 billion at the end of June. Overall, the supply of Ginnie Mae servicing grew 3.8 percent during the second quarter. Wells Fargo commanded a 28.2 percent share of Ginnie Mae servicing during the second quarter, up 4.7 percent from the first quarter. Not far behind is second-ranked BofA with a 26.6 percent share, thanks to... [Includes one data chart]

The zero risk weight for Ginnie Mae mortgage-backed securities remains despite Standard & Poor’s recent lowering of the long-term rating of the U.S. government and federal agencies from AAA to AA+ and affirmation of the A-1+ short-term rating, according to federal regulators. The rating agency also removed both the short- and long-term ratings from CreditWatch, where they have been since July 14 with negative implications. On August 5, federal banking and credit union regulators announced that, for risk-based capital purposes, the risk weights for Treasury securities and securities guaranteed by...

The FHA has announced changes to help ensure prompt, accurate and consistent responses to industry and public inquiries about FHA matters. The new primary electronic mail address and Internet site of the FHA Resource Center, which includes a Frequently-Asked-Questions site, will be easier to remember and access, according to the FHA. The new email address is answers@hud.gov, which replaced the previous info@fhaoutreach.com. The site address for the FHA FAQ site will change from www.fhaoutreach.gov/FHAFAQ to www.hud.gov/answers. Users should begin using the new addresses exclusively on Aug. 15, according to the FHA. The primary...

Mortgage industry veteran Lewis Ranieri says big banks will easily dodge the risk-retention requirements for mortgage securitizers that have been proposed by federal regulators. Issuers of non-agency mortgage securities that aren’t backed by “qualified residential mortgages” would have to retain a 5 percent interest in the transaction. In a joint comment letter submitted by Ranieri and Kenneth Rosen, chairman of Rosen Consulting Group, a real estate research firm, the pair warned that risk retention as proposed will benefit ...

Fannie Mae is moving ahead to buy out some $880 million of distressed FHA and VA mortgages from multi-class structured securities the government-sponsored enterprise guaranteed because the sellers have stopped making contractually required interest shortfall payments after loan modifications resulted in lower interest rates. That means investors in those securities can expect to receive an unscheduled distribution on Aug. 25, 2011, the GSE said. Fannie made the initial purchase on Aug. 1, 2011. Fannie said it will release additional information on the purchase of the remaining ...

The Treasury Department is making significant changes to the Home Affordable Modification Program designed to match some of the success servicers have had with proprietary loss mitigation programs.Non-agency servicers participating in the Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives short sale and deed-in-lieu of foreclosure portion of HAMP need to update their policies immediately, the Treasury announced this week. The structure for servicer incentive payments on non-agency first-lien HAMP mods will also change in October. "Unless prohibited by ... [includes one data chart]