In a not unexpected development, PMI Mortgage Insurance has become the second mortgage insurer in less than a month to be suspended by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as an approved GSE mortgage insurer after the company announced state regulators placed PMI under a supervisory order.Mortgages insured by PMI Mortgage Insurance or its affiliates PMI Mortgage Insurance Co. (MIC) and PMI Insurance Co. (PIC) with notes before May 19, 2011, or after Sept. 16, 2011, will no longer be purchased or securitized by Fannie or Freddie, the GSEs announced separately last week.
The junior senator from California is making another public push to overhaul GSE refinance rules — this time by calling on the Federal Housing Finance Agency to immediately implement parts of her bill that would allow underwater borrowers to refi with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into a lower-rate loan.Last week, Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-CA, sent FHFA Acting Director Edward DeMarco a letter urging the Finance Agency to take action on the parts of S.170 that can be implemented administratively.
The Federal Housing Finance Agency is expected to file suit in federal court within the next several days against “more than a dozen big banks” in connection with failed investments by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in non-agency securities, according to published reports. As Inside The GSEs was going to press, the New York Times reported that the Finance Agency is ready to pull the trigger on litigation aimed at Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman…
The sharp drop in mortgage origination activity during the second quarter had a bigger impact on retail loan production, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance ranking and analysis. But a much bigger change lies ahead as Bank of America this week announced plans to get out of the wholesale correspondent market. The company was the second largest correspondent lender in the industry during the first half of 2011, acquiring $49.23 billion in production. That represented a significant 8.3 percent of total home mortgage origination over the first six months of the year and nearly a quarter of industry-wide production in the correspondent channel. In a statement, BofA said...[Includes six data charts]
President Barack Obama and his advisors are scrambling to come up with ways to push the halting U.S. economic recovery forward, including the possibility of a major government mortgage refinance plan to help bolster the housing market. In a recent report, Deutsche Bank analysts said the administration has three options: remove or reduce the loan-level price adjustments that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac now charge...
Officials with Bank of America maintain that a proposed $8.5 billion settlement related to non-agency buybacks and servicing is fair, even as opposition continues to mount. BofA also continues to take action to distance itself from “legacy” assets acquired from Countrywide Financial. “Obviously there aren’t many days when I get up and think positively about the Countrywide transaction in 2008,” BofA’s CEO Brian Moynihan said this month in a conference call with investors. “In each quarter, we continue to put risk behind us ...
The massive losses taken by the government-sponsored enterprises on their non-prime holdings are not over yet. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac warned this month that they expect greater credit losses for 2011 than the hits they took last year, largely due to the continued poor performance of legacy non-prime acquisitions. The GSEs had a combined $430.51 billion in non-prime holdings as of the second quarter of 2011, according to a new ranking and analysis by Inside Nonconforming Markets. ... [includes one data chart]
The Obama administration is seeking ideas from stakeholders on how to thin out the FHA’s inventory of foreclosed homes, including turning the homes into rental properties to meet the growing need for affordable housing. In addition to addressing the FHA’s real estate-owned, or REO, problem, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, the Department of the Treasury and the Department of Housing and Urban Development are also calling for recommendations for similar home rental programs for REO properties held by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The agencies’ request is aimed at finding the best alternative for “maximizing value to taxpayers and increasing private investment in the housing market, including ...
The Department of Housing and Urban Development has developed a new Web-based tool which allows FHA, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to map all foreclosed properties for viewing by potential investors and homebuyers. The new mapping tool displays the location of all foreclosed homes in the agencies’ inventories, which account for nearly half of all real estate-owned or REO properties in the U.S. Communities with high foreclosure rates that are participating in HUD’s Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) will find the REO portal useful in targeting federal funds to acquire, rehabilitate or demolish these REO properties, according to department officials. The map’s consolidated graphic listing enables ...
The consensus among mortgage market watchers is that the downgrade earlier this month of the GSEs by Standard & Poor’s will have no immediate, detrimental impact even as Fitch Ratings this week said it is keeping Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s “AAA” rating.Fitch this week also said its outlook for Fannie and Freddie’s ratings remained “stable.” The move was in concert with Fitch’s decision to keep its rating on U.S. debt at the highest grade.“A key element of the explicit support is the guarantee by the U.S. Treasury to inject funds into Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, so that each firm can avoid being considered technically insolvent by their regulator,” said the rating agency.
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