The 10-year anniversary of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac entering conservatorship prompted an effusion of words regarding housing-finance reform and a draft of a new bipartisan bill in the House. It remains to be seen whether any of the talk turns into action in Congress, though administrative reform via the Federal Housing Finance Agency and the Treasury Department remains a possibility. Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-TX, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee ...
Ginnie Mae issuers produced $36.68 billion of new single-family mortgage-backed securities last month, a modest 5.0 percent gain from July, according to a new Inside FHA/VA Lending analysis and ranking. Through the first eight months of the year, Ginnie issuance was down 11.0 percent from the same period in 2017. The MBS figures do not include FHA home-equity conversion mortgages, and loan amounts are truncated to the lowest $1,000. Purchase mortgages accounted for 75.6 percent of new issuance in August, although volume was up just 1.9 percent from July’s level. On a year-to-date basis, the purchase-mortgage share rose from 65.7 percent in 2017 to 70.0 percent for the first eight months of this year. Total volume, however, was down 5.1 percent. The refinance market has been more wobbly. As of the end of August, refi volume totaled $65.87 billion, down 26.2 percent from the ... [Chart]
One housing lobbyist dismissed the bill as misguided, adding: “This is like someone laying on their death bed after drinking and sinning and finally realizing they need to get baptized.”
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