While reform of the nation’s housing system and the government-sponsored enterprises languishes on Capitol Hill, three important GSE risk-sharing innovations could revolutionize housing finance independent of Congressional action, according to experts at the Urban Institute’s Housing Finance Policy Center. “Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have guaranteed at least half of all new mortgage originations for the past eight years. The two GSEs’ critical role ...
While the Federal Housing Finance Agency takes its time deciding whether nonbanks should be allowed to use captive insurance units to become members of a Federal Home Loan Bank, real estate investment trusts appear to be ramping up their borrowings from the system’s advance window. At least that’s what Inside Mortgage Finance found when it recently conducted a spot check of mortgage REITs that have gained access to the FHLBank system via a captive insurance subsidiary. Redwood Trust, for example, had...
Originations to first-time homebuyers perform worse than originations for repeat buyers, with the differences tied to factors beyond solely whether the borrower is a first-time homebuyer, according to new research from the Federal Housing Finance Agency. In a working paper published late last week, Saty Patrabansh, a senior economist at the FHFA, determined that the difference in performance between the first-time homebuyers and repeat buyers can be attributed to differences in the distributional make-up of the two groups and not to the premise that first-time homebuyers are an inherently riskier group. He analyzed...
According to IMF’s exclusive ranking, Cenlar ranked first among all subservicers at the end of the first quarter with an estimated $252 billion of contracts...