The latest white paper on housing finance reform details the governance and capitalization plan of a proposal that replaces the GSEs with a new government corporation. But smaller lenders are still uncertain what their role would be in the plan.In what can be dubbed as part two to the white paper, “A More Promising Road to GSE Reform,” published by the Urban Institute, the authors more closely examine their proposed National Mortgage Reinsurance Corp.The NMRC would take over the assets of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac going forward, and would transfer all of the “non-catastrophic” risk on future mortgage-backed securities to the private market.
While Fannie Mae scrapped its plans to roll out Desktop Underwriter 10.0 the last weekend in June, Freddie Mac forges ahead with plans for its July 11 release date of Loan Advisor Suite. Fannie and Freddie have both been preparing for big updates to their loan origination tools this year. However, Fannie delayed its June 25 rollout by three months and this week scheduled to release DU 10.0 the week of Sept. 25. Freddie’s Loan Advisor Suite is actually the next generation of Loan Prospector, which it named Loan Product Advisor. The GSE recently reminded its customers of the upcoming change and offered tips on how to prepare for it.
The White House is blocking the release of years- old memos and emails surrounding the Treasury sweep of GSE profits. This month, it formally invoked presidential communication privilege over four documents specifically. But some wonder if it’s just to avoid embarrassment.These particular documents represent communication between former National Economic Council members Brian Deese, Gene Sperling and Jim Parrott. And this is in addition to documents the Treasury has already protected under other executive privilege claims. A judge in the Fairholme Funds, Inc. et. al v. the United States case requested on May 27 that the court view the draft memos and emails. One of the documents is a draft memorandum from...
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have now sold credit risk on more than $1 trillion in unpaid balances of single-family mortgages combined. As of the second quarter, Freddie sold slightly more and transferred the risk on $552.7 million, and Fannie sold $550.1 billion. In the second quarter, Freddie’s credit risk transfer transactions amounted to $75.6 million, an increase from $53.7 billion in the first quarter but less than the $98.0 billion transferred in the second quarter of 2015. Fannie transferred the risk on $37.3 billion in the first quarter, down from the $65.9 billion the previous quarter and $46.2 billion a year earlier.
Examiners raised several issues in the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s annual report to Congress detailing the work of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Home Loan Banks.One critical issue in the report, released last week, was the GSEs’ inability to build capital. Examiners said income reductions from shrinking portfolios, coupled with decreases in income from reserve releases and legal settlements and market-to-market volatility from their derivatives portfolio all increase the likelihood of negative net worth in future quarters. Moreover, the examiners said credit-risk transfer initiatives also impose costs that will reduce the GSEs’ earnings. Fannie’s problem assets continued to decline in 2015, but the examiners...
Freddie Completes $706 Million NPL Sale. Freddie Mac announced this week that it sold a large chunk of a $706 million deeply delinquent loan portfolio to Lone Star Funds’ LSF9 Mortgage Holdings. LSF9 was the winning bidder on four pools and Upland Mortgage Acquisition Company II won one. In total, 2,879 mortgage loans were offered through five separate mortgage pools. The loans have been delinquent for an average of approximately five years. As the company continues to trim its retained portfolio, the new sale marks the GSE’s third nonperforming loan auction of the year. The first was a $1.4 billion sale in March, followed by a $130 million transaction in June. Fannie Announces Latest NPL Sale. Last week Fannie Mae announced its latest sale of non-performing loans, including...
Jumbo mortgage originations declined by 2.0 percent during the first quarter of 2016, mirroring the modest downturn in overall mortgage lending from the previous quarter. Jumbo originations – including loans that were within the high-cost loan limits for Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, FHA and VA – totaled $100.61 billion in the first quarter, according to a new analysis and ranking by Inside Mortgage Finance. The sector accounted for 26.5 percent of total originations during the first three months of the year, down slightly from a 26.7 percent share in the fourth quarter. The jumbo share of total originations has generally been...[Includes three data tables]
First-time homebuyers account for a growing share of home purchases, and even though housing inventory is limited, originations of mortgages for first-time homebuyers are up sharply. First-time homebuyers accounted for 40.8 percent of home purchases in May, according to results from the latest Campbell/Inside Mortgage Finance HousingPulse Tracking Survey. The share for first-time homebuyers, based on a three-month moving average, was the highest level seen in more than five years. “Demand from first-time homebuyers is...
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