Purchase mortgages securitized by Fannie, Freddie and Ginnie in the first quarter of 2014 were down by 76.3 percent compared with the first quarter of 2013.
The surge in recent years of Federal Home Loan Bank advances by big banks presents safety and soundness risks, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency's Office of Inspector General.
The CFPB needs to up its game and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of its supervisory activities, according to a recent report from the Federal Reserve Office of Inspector General, the IG for the bureau. “Specifically, we found that the CFPB needs to improve its reporting timeliness and reduce the number of examination reports that have not been issued, adhere to its unequivocal standards concerning the use of standard compliance rating definitions in its examination reports, and update its policies and procedures to reflect current practices,” the OIG said. The report contains 12 recommendations designed to assist the CFPB in strengthening its supervision program, one of which is to monitor the timeliness of examination reporting against the requirements the agency...
The first three months of 2014 represented the strongest quarterly ABS issuance number since the third quarter of 2009, when $53.27 billion of new deals were issued. It was up a modest 1.7 percent from the strong start in 2013.
FHFA Director Mel Watt may have something to say soon on the topic of Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac loan level price adjustments, commonly known as LLPAs. As for the GSE 'Scorecard'...
The Mortgage Bankers Association is urging the Department of Housing and Urban Development to provide a transparent process by which interested parties could request a recalculation of the FHA loan limits and present supporting evidence. By statute, maximums for FHA loan limits in high-cost areas were reduced to $625,500 from $729,750 at the beginning of the year for one-unit residential properties, the same maximum loan limit for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for similar properties in high-cost areas. The MBA said HUD made further reductions in FHA FY 2014 loan limits in approximately 300 counties and county equivalents across the country, with many experiencing significant reductions. The trade group believes these changes were not required by statute. To the extent that the loan-limit reductions in those areas were discretionary, the MBA strongly urged HUD to moderate its ...
Overall FHA production fell significantly in all 50 states in 2013 apparently due to mortgage insurance premium increases and policy changes that made it difficult for even qualified borrowers to obtain an FHA-insured single-family loan. FHA volume by state dropped 27.5 percent in the fourth quarter to $35.8 billion, from $49.4 billion in the previous quarter, with all states showing varying percentages of decline during the period. Year over year, production by state declined by 9.2 percent, data showed. Total FHA originations were $211.3 billion for 2013, with the first quarter ending strongly with $63.7 billion. Production, however, lost steam over the next three quarters. Among the top five FHA states, Virginia suffered the largest quarterly drop, 35.2 percent, in FHA volume. California was the top FHA producer state with $35.2 billion for a ... [2 charts]