New production of agency single-family MBS in November was down 8.2 percent from the previous month, according to a preliminary Inside MBS & ABS analysis. Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae issued a combined $134.70 billion of single-family MBS in November, the lowest monthly total since July. A decline wasn’t unexpected: the housing market is on the downslope of its seasonal trend and rising mortgage interest rates are taking some of the steam out of the refinance market. What is a little unusual is...[Includes two data tables]
Shortly after being nominated by President-elect Donald Trump to be his Treasury secretary, investment banker Steve Mnuchin midweek dropped a bombshell on the mortgage market: Ending the conservatorships of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would be a top priority. For the most part, the mortgage industry cheered the news, believing that at the very least, Mnuchin would preserve the federal guaranty on existing MBS and into the future. In fact, the market seems to be betting on it. But now comes...
Several pending mortgage lawsuits spawned by the housing crisis are inching closer to closure, including an apparent victory for Bank of America. The Department of Justice let the deadline pass to appeal a ruling from May in which BofA, defending practices of Countrywide Financial, escaped having to pay more than $1 billion in penalties to the Federal Housing Finance Agency. In 2014, a federal judge ordered...
New loan limits for the government-sponsored enterprises in 2017 won’t have much of an impact on jumbo originations, according to an analysis by Inside Nonconforming Markets. The Federal Housing Finance Agency announced last week that the baseline conforming loan limit for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will increase in 2017, which will also boost the GSEs’ high-cost loan limit. The baseline conforming loan limit will increase to $424,100 in 2017, up from the $417,000 level it has ...
Reform of the government-sponsored enterprises and a potential for more non-agency lending will be a priority for the Trump administration, according to the presumptive nominee to head the Treasury Department. President-elect Donald Trump is likely to nominate Steve Mnuchin to lead the Treasury. Mnuchin is a former partner at Goldman Sachs, founded the hedge fund Dune Capital Management and was among the investors that purchased IndyMac in 2009. In an interview this week on ...
The FHA this week announced higher “floor” and “ceiling” loan limits for forward and reverse mortgages for 2017, pushing loan limits upward in certain metropolitan statistical areas by as much as $162,500. The loan-limit changes will take effect on Jan. 1, spurred by rising median home prices. The Case-Shiller Home Price Index for September reported that home prices increased 5.5 percent year-over-year, driven by a tight supply of homes for sale, especially in the West. Each year, FHA recalculates its loan limits based on 115 percent of the median house price in the area. For counties located in MSAs, the loan limit is calculated based on the highest-cost county within the MSA. Under the 2017 changes, FHA will raise its nationwide “floor,” or low-cost area mortgage limits, for one-unit properties to $275,665 from $271,050, a difference of $4,615. In high-cost areas, the loan-limit ceiling for a ... [ 2 charts ]
US Court Issues Injunction on DOL’s Overtime Pay Rule. A federal judge in Texas granted states’ motion to block the Department of Labor’s controversial overtime pay rule set to take effect on Dec. 1, 2016. In late breaking news, the Department of Justice said it will appeal the injunction. The decision handed down by Judge Amos Mazzant of the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas would deprive approximately 4.2 million workers who stand to benefit from the rule. Twenty-one states, a coalition of business organizations and the Plano Chamber of Commerce challenged the rule in separate amici briefs, arguing they stand to lose money if the final rule takes effect. The final rule would require employers to pay a higher salary level for certain employees to be exempt from overtime. In addition, it would automatically update the minimum salary level every three years. In his decision, Mazzant determined that ...
The Federal Housing Finance Agency raised the maximum conforming loan limit for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgages in 2017 for the first time in a decade, but the impact on loan originations is questionable. Meanwhile, the FHA has not yet announced its 2017 loan limits. The baseline loan limit will go up for the first time since 2006, rising from $417,000 to $424,100. And the maximum high-cost loan limit for one-unit properties is climbing to $636,150, an increase of $10,650. The FHFA said that loan limits for the two government-sponsored enterprises will increase in all but 87 counties. An Inside Mortgage Finance analysis of Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data indicates...
The incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump is likely a couple of months away from formal confirmation by the U.S. Senate of new cabinet officials. But at least one position has apparently been settled – that of Treasury secretary – and other names have been circulated, including that of a possible head of the Department of Housing and Urban Development. At the same time, Trump has begun fleshing out the personnel that will serve on various “landing teams,” which help ease the transitions at various federal agencies. On the cabinet level, the new president has decided...
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