Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac continued to shrink their retained investment portfolios in the first quarter of this year by focusing on paring their MBS holdings. The two government-sponsored enterprises held a combined $560.04 billion in their retained mortgage portfolios at the end of March. That was down 1.9 percent from the previous period and 16.7 percent below year-ago levels. At their current pace, Fannie and Freddie are...[Includes one data table]

Nonprime mortgages held by the government-sponsored enterprises continued a gradual decline in the first quarter of 2017, according to an analysis by Inside Nonconforming Markets. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac held nonprime mortgages with a total unpaid principal balance of $133.89 billion at the end of the quarter, down 5.3 percent from the end of 2016 and down 22.1 percent from the first quarter of last year. The holdings are largely ... [Includes one data chart]

A former Congressman, Watt knows full well that by allowing Fannie and Freddie to build capital once again it will set off a political firestorm...

The key factor for the greater MI penetration was the relatively stronger performance of purchase-mortgage lending compared to refinance activity…

Overall, Arch MI wrote coverage on $12.66 billion of home mortgages in the first quarter, of which 81.9 percent were monthly premium policies…

During the hearing Thursday, Sen. Bob Corker, R-TN, called “the whole issue of them running out of resources” baseless.

Federal Housing Finance Director Mel Watt this week expressed strong reluctance to allow Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to be forced to take another draw on their Treasury line of credit. “FHFA has explicit statutory obligations to ensure that each enterprise ‘operates in a safe and sound manner’ and fosters ‘liquid, efficient, competitive and resilient national housing finance markets,’” Watt testified in a hearing at the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Development Committee. “To ensure that we meet these obligations, we cannot risk...

BlackRock this week joined with most other industry participants recommending that housing-finance reform include an explicit government guarantee for mortgage-backed securities backed by conventional home loans. The asset manager also highlighted the need to respect the rights of investors, ensure fungibility of the existing government-sponsored enterprise MBS in any new system and provide transparency at all levels. “This includes transparency regarding loan origination, securitization, and access to the secondary market,” said BlackRock. “We believe the role of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as they exit conservatorship should be clearly defined in any new housing finance system.” The firm suggested...

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac released a draft proposal this week on how they plan to boost underserved manufactured housing, rural housing and affordable housing preservation markets for low and moderate-income families over the next three years. Based on a federal law, the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s duty-to-serve rule requires the government-sponsored enterprises to increase financing in those three areas. The plans released this week are part of an extended implementation process. A large part of the duty-to-serve conversation has focused...

Watt’s comments on building capital did not move the share price of Fannie/Freddie common very much...