Former Federal Housing Finance Agency Acting Director Ed DeMarco continues to push his housing finance reform proposal leaning toward a Ginnie Mae model that would convert the GSEs into companies mutually owned by mortgage lenders. DeMarco, while speaking at a secondary market symposium in Florida earlier this month sponsored by Keefe Bruyette and Woods, said the proposal calls for risk sharing using private capital to meaningfully increase capital present at the mortgage-backed securities level. KBW called the plan “promising” because it’s proposing changes that are incremental as opposed to proposing a completely new structure for the mortgage market. “We think the mortgage insurers and mortgage real estate investment trusts are well...
Freddie’s First NPL Sale of 2017. Freddie Mac announced its first nonperforming loan sale of the year last week, a $759 million auction of seasoned non-performing residential whole loans. The NPLs are currently serviced by Nationstar Mortgage LLC and Specialized Loan Servicing LLC. This is also Freddie Mac’s second multi-servicer NPL transaction. The NPLs are being marketed via five pools: four Standard Pool Offerings and one Extended Timeline Pool Offering, which targets participation by smaller investors, including non-profits and minority and women-owned businesses. HARP Refi Volume Slow in 4Q. The Federal Housing Finance Agency reported that 13,220 borrowers refinanced their mortgages through the Home Affordable Refinance Program...
“Since reaching a trough in mid-2013, the rebound in household debt has been led by student debt and auto debt, with only sluggish growth in mortgage debt,” said one New York Fed official.
The retained mortgage investments of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac declined by 17.5 percent over the course of 2016, keeping the two government-sponsored enterprises on track to meet targets set as conditions of their conservatorships. The two GSEs reported a combined $570.78 billion in retained mortgage investments at yearend, down 7.3 percent from September. The biggest decline was in their holdings of MBS, which fell 23.8 percent for the year. Back in the early 2000s, Fannie and Freddie were...[Includes one data table]
In a long-awaited decision, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled this week against Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac shareholders who have been contesting the Treasury Department’s net worth sweep of the government-sponsored enterprises’ earnings. On Feb. 21, Judge Royce Lamberth ruled shareholders in Perry Capital LLC vs. Treasury, et al, are barred by the 2008 Housing and Economic Recovery Act from making their claims. Perry sued...
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac reported record lows in the volume of mortgages that sellers repurchased during the fourth quarter of 2016 because of manufacturing defects, an exclusive new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis reveals. Mortgage seller repurchases or other indemnification to the two government-sponsored enterprises totaled $207.31 million in the final three months of 2016. That was down 37.0 percent from the previous quarter and ... [Includes two data charts]