Work on housing-finance reform looks likely to ramp up in the coming weeks and months, including a document from the Trump administration and legislation in the Senate. But many policy analysts believe that passage of comprehensive legislation is still years away, giving great power to the next director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency. The Treasury Department will likely release principles on housing-finance reform within weeks, according to David Stevens ...
A handful of shareholder lawsuits challenging the government’s net worth sweep of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac earnings have landed at the Supreme Court of the United States, asking the top court to review the constitutionality of the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Back in September, the FHFA filed a motion to dismiss in Atif Bhatti, et al., vs. The Federal Housing Finance Agency, stating that the plaintiffs lack standing to bring claims of their alleged injuries being related to ...
Joshua Rosner, managing director of Graham Fisher & Co., said his discussions with Trump officials and members of Congress suggest that the administration’s reform principles won’t be released until early next year…
CRT deals may be popular with legislators since they “de-risk” Fannie and Freddie, but over the long haul the transactions reduce profits for the GSEs, or so critics have charged…
Overall denial rates for nonconventional loan applications (FHA, VA and Rural Housing Service) fell slightly in 2016 to 13.4 percent from 13.9 percent in 2015, Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data showed. In the nonconventional refinancing segment, denial rates rose to 32.9 percent last year from 30.3 percent in the previous year. Approximately 23.9 percent of FHA loan applicants were denied last year while VA turned down 20.0 percent of borrowers who sought a VA loan. An estimated 14.3 percent of FHA purchase-loan applicants were turned down. VA denied 11.4 percent of its purchase-mortgage applicants although its total purchase-loan applications are far fewer compared to FHA. According to the Federal Reserve’s overview of the 2016 HMDA data, as in past years, blacks, Hispanics and “other minority” borrowers had notably higher denial rates overall compared to white borrowers. Denial rates for ...