Analyst Henry Coffey: “It is worth noting, given expected home price appreciation, that a flat mortgage market should translate into a 4 percent or greater decline in actual mortgage unit count.”
In his report, KBW analyst Bose George said, “While Mel Watt, director of the FHFA, was questioned about some of these issues in past congressional hearings, this will be the first hearing to focus exclusively on this topic.”
It appears – for now – that Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Mel Watt will serve out the remainder of his term, despite a recent public airing of sexual harassment allegations levied against him by senior advisor Simone Grimes.
It appears that the Senate is ready to tackle industry complaints about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pilot programs. The Senate Banking Housing and Urban Affairs Committee announced this week that they will hold a hearing on Oct. 18 to discuss the oversight of pilot programs at the government-sponsored enterprises. …
Ginnie Mae issuance of single-family mortgage-backed securities rode a homebuying wave during the third quarter of 2018, according to a new Inside FHA/VA Lending ranking and analysis. Ginnie issuers produced $105.63 billion of new MBS backed by forward mortgages during the July-September cycle, a 7.1 percent increase from the second quarter. That brought year-to-date production to $296.88 billion – down 11.3 percent from the first nine months of 2017. Purchase mortgages provided the boost for the Ginnie market. Some $75.69 billion of FHA and VA purchase mortgages were pooled in Ginnie MBS in the third quarter, a sturdy 13.1 percent increase from the previous period. Purchase loans accounted for 75.1 percent of FHA and VA loans securitized in the third quarter, compared to 64.7 percent for all of last year. Although production of these loans has gone up since the first quarter, year-to-date volume ... [Charts]