Loan sellers and servicers doing business with Freddie Mac will be charged a so-called low-activity fee for not meeting new quotas for loan deliveries and mortgage servicing beginning next year, according to a policy change announced recently by the government-sponsored enterprise. Freddie Mac said it will assess lenders a fee of $7,500 if they fail to deliver mortgage loans with an aggregate principal balance of more than $5 million or service mortgages for the GSE with an aggregate balance of at least $25 million. Freddie will begin monitoring loan sales and servicing beginning this year and imposing the low-activity fee on slackers on Jan. 1, 2014. There were at least 277 lenders that sold...

The lack of a specific computer code for reporting short-sale mortgage transactions is creating numerous false reports of foreclosure on consumer credit reports, inhibiting their re-entry into the housing market, according to lawmakers on Capitol Hill and consumer advocates. Earlier this month, Sen. Bill Nelson, D-FL, dispatched letters to the Federal Trade Commission and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau citing the “disturbing” consumer credit reporting practice of lumping short sale within the same industry code as a foreclosure in consumers’ credit reports. “If a short sale is reported...

Thomas Popik, research director for Campbell Surveys, said first-time buyer demand appears to be leveling off due to changes at the FHA.

FHA jumbo lenders produced an estimated $5.44 billion in loans over $417,000 during the first three months of the year.

Sen. Warner recently paid a visit to Freddie Mac employees but offered little information about his pending GSE bill.

Fannie and Freddie were ordered by their regulator to sell illiquid securities. But those bonds may fetch a nice price in the secondary market.

Are Fannie Mae and Freddie mac sitting on huge untapped profits?

Ocwen had $155 billion of subprime servicing contracts at the end of the first quarter, more than double its next closest competitor.

It’s not exactly Mutiny on the Bounty, but 378 employees of the CFPB voted last week in favor of joining the National Treasury Employees Union, with 86 against, putting the NTEU in the position of representing more than 800 of the CFPB’s approximately 1,200 employees, according to Politico. “Why would employees at CFPB – an agency with liberal bona fides, generous compensation and top-notch benefits – want to form a union,” Politico asked. “The push to organize was driven in large part by news that many employees in...

Freddie Mac is offering $1.0 billion of its non-agency MBS holdings for sale, according to a spokesman for the government-sponsored enterprise, part of efforts to meet requirements set by the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Fannie Mae also plans asset sales of some sort, but wouldn’t commit to selling its non-agency MBS holdings. Freddie held $70.28 billion in non-agency MBS at the end of the first quarter of 2013 and Fannie held $31.22 billion. The GSEs purchased the non-agency MBS before 2009 and have allowed the holdings to run off ever since. The FHFA recently required...