A highway funding bill signed by President Obama late last week included a provision aimed at collecting more taxes related to interest payments on mortgages. The mortgage industry noted that it won concessions on the provision, delaying the implementation date and limiting the amount of data to be collected. The brunt of the new revenue also looks as though it will be collected from borrowers. H.R. 3236, the Surface Transportation and Veterans Health Care Choice Improvement Act of 2015, included a seemingly simple provision regarding the reporting of mortgage interest on IRS Form 1098. Servicers use the form to report mortgage interest of $600 or more received during a year. The highway funding bill will require...

With house prices rising over the past few years, as many as 15 million homeowners appear to be underestimating how much equity they’re actually sitting on, according to a new analysis released this week from Fannie Mae. The percent of homeowners estimated by CoreLogic to have significant home equity was much higher than the percent who actually perceived themselves as having equity in Fannie consumer surveys. The government-sponsored enterprise attributes this to a lack of access to credible home value equity tools coupled with a lack of knowledge on the homeowner’s part. This means...

The House Financial Services Committee has passed a number of mortgage-related bills designed to ease lenders’ liabilities by simplifying rules, reducing complexity and compliance costs, while a streamlined regulatory relief package gained new momentum in the Senate. Late last week, the committee reported out the following bills: H.R. 1210, (Portfolio Lending and Mortgage Access Act); H.R. 1941 (Financial Institutions Examination Fairness and Reform Act); and H.R. 3192 (Homebuyers Assistance Act). H.R. 1210 would modify...

The last time Ginnie Mae was the top agency issuer was in January of 2009...

Residential lenders funded $445 billion in the second quarter, one of the best readings in two years, according to figures compiled by Inside Mortgage Finance.

Conforming-jumbos accounted for almost 10 percent of GSE business on single-unit properties in the first half of this year...

Freddie CEO Don Layton noted that, “G-fees now account for more than 40 percent of income and is becoming a growing revenue source.”

At the midway point of 2015, the group’s $8.061 billion in year-to-date mortgage-banking income was up 15.1 percent from the first six months of 2014.

A bill seeking to block the proposed pay raises for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac CEOs was passed with bipartisan support this week by the House Financial Services Committee. As controversial talks of pay raises for Fannie and Freddie CEOs intensified, Rep. Ed Royce, R-CA, continued to push his legislation to cap the salaries with H.R. 2243, the Equity in Government Compensation Act of 2015. Royce was adamant and said Congress needs to put a stop to the “planned multi-million dollar paydays” at the GSEs. The CEOs could have gotten up to $4 million each in annual total compensation. Earlier this month, the Federal Housing Finance Agency authorized the removal of a pay cap.

The U.S. Court of Federal Claims Court ordered the U.S. Treasury to release all discovery documents pertaining to the conservatorship of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac last week in connection with the Fairholme Funds v. The United States case. In a move forcing the U.S. Treasury to release all discovery documents pertaining to the GSE conservatorship, a court ruling last week is a rare legal victory for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac investors. Attorneys for Fairholme believe that the government is deliberately stonewalling, making it more difficult to get a true understanding of the events and decisions leading up to the third amendment sweep.