The agency single-family MBS market gained speed for the sixth consecutive month in July and appeared on track to top last year’s annual total by the time 2016 is over. According to a new Inside MBS & ABS analysis and ranking, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae produced a hefty $129.30 billion of new single-family MBS in July. That was up 7.7 percent from June and represented the biggest month in new issuance since August 2013. While the year-to-date totals were still slightly below the volume produced in the first seven months of 2015, this year’s market probably hasn’t...[Includes two data tables]
One of the largest players in the "new" nonprime mortgage industry is Citadel Loan Servicing, Irvine, CA, which now has a portfolio totaling $600 million.
The dramatic expansion of the credit box for loans sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the first quarter of this year held steady in the second quarter, according to a new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of mortgage-backed securities data. In the first quarter, the share of purchase loans sold to the government-sponsored enterprises with credit scores ranging from 620 to 699 jumped by nearly 7 percentage points to 21.4 percent. The low-score share ... [Includes one data chart]
GSE guaranty fees more than doubled from 2011 to 2015, increasing from an average of 26 basis points in 2011 to 56 basis points in 2015, according to a new report published this week. That sharp increase has prompted trade and community groups to lobby for lower fees. However, Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Mel Watt said this week that the current charges “strike the right balance, between safety and soundness and liquidity in the housing finance market,” according to a reply letter he sent to the Center for Responsible Lenders, Mortgage Bankers Association and a host of others seeking a fee reduction. In the FHFA’s annual report to Congress on guaranty fees...
The Federal Housing Finance Agency concluded that adding a question about a borrower’s language preference on its updated Uniform Residential Loan Application form was probably not a good idea after all, at least for now. The URLA is an industry-standard loan application that has remained pretty much the same for the last two decades. The FHFA is charged with finalizing the redesigned application this summer to give lenders adequate time to prepare for the new form in January 2018.In an attempt to recognize the growing numbers of non-English speakers, the FHFA considered adding a question about the borrower’s primary language.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac processed a huge increase in single-family business through their mortgage-backed securities platforms in July, according to a new Inside The GSEs analysis and ranking.Total single-family MBS issuance hit $83.27 billion in July, a solid 9.3 percent increase from the June. It was the biggest monthly output for the two GSEs since August 2013, when they had a combined $98.83 billion in single-family MBS issuance. Most of the gain came from a 15.3 percent jump in purchase-mortgage business in July. But the flow of refinance loans also increased, by a more modest 3.6 percent, from the previous month.
The Federal Housing Finance Agency is well along on planning a replacement program for underwater mortgages with an announcement coming “relatively soon,” Freddie Mac CEO Donald Layton said this week. The successor program will be a “relief refinance” initiative, he said in an interview with Inside The GSEs, noting the borrower will be able to refinance “without going through a full new regular credit process.” Layton added that mortgage professionals should think of the new effort as a cousin to the Home Affordable Refinance Program, which is set to expire at the end of the year. There are approximately 325,290 borrowers still eligible for a refinance under the HARP initiative, according to FHFA’s figures.
The Federal Housing Finance Agency’s Office of Inspector General disagreed with lawmakers’ allegations that organizational changes within the oversight agency have led to inefficiency.In June, Sens. Charles Grassley, R-IA, and Ron Johnson, R-WI, asked the Council of Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency to review the FHFA OIG. The senators said that staff cuts in the Office of Audits over the past two years, combined with money spent to hire outside employees, has led to decreased production since FHFA IG Laura Wertheimer took reign in 2014. They complained that the agency produced less audit reports in 2015 and said some reports that were completed were not published.
More unsealed documents were released this week during the discovery process in a GSE shareholder case in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. The eight documents ranged from an excerpt of former White House housing policy expert Jim Parrott’s deposition from January,to presentations from the Federal Housing Finance Agency in 2008 to several memos dating back to 2008 and 2012. In the two-page Parrott deposition excerpt, he said that the net worth sweep was a “Treasury-driven process,” when asked why he didn’t reach out to anyone on Capitol Hill about the plan. He added that to the degree there was outreach to Congress, it would have come from Treasury, not him.
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