MBS guaranty fees charged by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would not have to increase by much from current levels to shift risk to the private sector, according to a new analysis by Andrew Davidson & Co. However, if policymakers looking to reduce the market share of the government-sponsored enterprises want to expand credit availability beyond the tight standards in the GSE market, g-fees will have to increase significantly. Fannie Mae reported that the average effective g-fee in its third quarter 2012 business was 41.8 basis points, and the GSEs raised their fees by 10 bps during the fourth quarter of last year. A report this week from the Bipartisan Policy Center Housing Commission proposed...

Freddie Mac hit an earnings home run in the fourth quarter, a sign that the GSE is "back." Fannie Mae may report early next week.

Wells Fargo last year wound up keeping almost $20 billion of new residential production its books instead of selling the loans to Fannie Mare and Freddie Mac.

Heavy refinance activity, especially through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, boosted the conventional conforming market by a whopping 35 percent in 2012.

Residential fundings are starting to slow as refinancings wane, according to interviews conducted by Inside Mortgage Finance.

JPMorgan Chase will slash thousands of mortgage workers over the next 20 months.

According to a new analysis by Inside MBS & ABS, REIT MBS investors as a group increased their MBS holdings by 47.4 percent in 2012.

The GSEs continued to wrangle with seller/servicers over repurchase requests during the fourth quarter of 2012, but mostly over loans originated five years earlier.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency has not given up on its effort to install risk-based pricing for guaranty fees.

Industry participants who track various FHA data, including Home Equity Conversion Mortgage loans and Neighborhood Watch compare ratios, may have noticed delays in their postings. For example, the latest available data for HECM originations was in September, the end of fiscal year 2012, and no updates have been posted since. David Stevens, president and chief executive officer of the Mortgage Bankers Association, also wondered why Neighborhood Watch was down. He suspected lack of funding. A Department of Housing and Urban Development spokesman explained that the FHA’s reporting timelines and procedures are undergoing ...