The Federal Home Loan Banks’ Mortgage Partnership Finance program and Redwood Trust announced a number of changes this week to the MPF Direct product. Beginning Aug. 31, the loan limit will increase to $2.5 million and hybrid adjustable-rate mortgages will be eligible for delivery. The MPF Direct program was launched in 2014, with a loan limit of $729,750, the high-cost loan limit for the government-sponsored enterprises at the time. In the third quarter of 2015, the loan limit for the product was increased to $1.5 million. The loan limit for cash-out refinances is $750,000. “We continue...

The Republican platform, released this week during the Republican National Convention, would scale back the government’s role in housing and make borrowers and lenders more responsible. But it offered a somewhat vague prescription for what to do with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. “Our goal is to advance responsible homeownership while guarding against the abuses that led to the housing collapse,” the platform states. The GOP said housing reform should include clear underwriting standards and guidelines on predatory and acceptable lending practices – standards that are arguably at the core of the Dodd-Frank Act that’s roundly criticized by the party. Republicans blamed...

Mortgages that allow buyers to make low downpayments are making a quiet comeback, according to a recent analysis from Deutsche Bank. But do they have the staying power? So far, seven lenders have partnered with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in special programs to offer loans requiring anywhere from no money down to 3 percent down. Although the government-sponsored enterprises cap their high loan-to-value product at 97 percent, some lenders step in and subsidize the extra funds needed to make up the difference. The GSEs began...

The secondary market in mortgage servicing rights rebounded during the second quarter of 2016 after starting the year with a thud, according to an exclusive Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of mortgage-securities disclosures by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae. The three agencies saw a combined $42.95 billion of MSR change hands in bulk transactions during the second quarter. That was up 20.6 percent from the first quarter, when ... [Includes two data charts]

Small banks have increased their holdings of mortgage servicing rights in recent years as more of these institutions switched to delivering mortgages directly to the government-sponsored enterprises, according to an analysis by federal banking regulators. Small banks, those with total assets less than $10.0 billion, held 8.0 percent of the banking industry’s total mortgage servicing assets in 2015, up from a share of less than 2.0 percent as recently as 2009. Small banks have increased ...

Large depository institutions continued to let their servicing portfolios of loans pooled in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgage-backed securities slowly decline in the second quarter of 2016. A new Inside The GSEs analysis shows that banks, thrifts and credit unions still accounted for the lion’s share of GSE MBS servicing at the end of June. Depositories serviced $2.778 trillion of Fannie and Freddie single-family loans tied to MBS, or 66.6 percent of the total market. But that was down 0.9 percent from the previous quarter during a period when the total servicing of GSE single-family MBS edged slightly higher. Nonbanks, however, .... [includes two charts]

This week, the Republicans adopted their official platform and called the GSE conservatorship a “corrupt” way of doing business. The GOP said the Great Recession devastated the housing market and caused taxpayers to pay billions of dollars to rescue Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. They blame Democrats in Congress and the Obama administration for preventing efforts to reform the GSEs since they’ve been in conservatorship. “Their corrupt business model lets shareholders and executives reap huge profits while the taxpayers cover all loses,” the platform said. While vague in taking a stance on what should be done with Fannie and Freddie, the platform simply stated that the utility of both agencies should be “reconsidered.”

The Federal Housing Finance Agency remains resistant to taking on Property-Assessed Clean Energy loans despite this week’s announcement that the FHA will allow PACE loans.PACE programs provide financing for home energy improvements and water conservation, repaid through an assessment added to the property’s tax bill. FHA’s new guidance addresses state programs where the PACE obligation is treated like a property tax with priority over an FHA mortgage lien.However, like other mortgage industry critics of PACE loans, FHFA Director Mel Watt, said he continues to have “serious concerns” with how PACE programs are financed.

Trade groups and a long list of Congressmen are crying foul and urging the Federal Housing Finance Agency to not include a question asking borrowers’ language preference on its new Uniform Residential Loan Application. The FHFA, along with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, are considering adding the question as a last- minute addition to the URLA. However, in June, nine trade groups, including the American Bankers Association, Consumer Mortgage Coalition and Mortgage Bankers Association, wrote FHFA Director Mel Watt to voice their concerns, many of which focused on compliance and discrimination issues. They argued that a language preference question requires lenders to ask borrowers sensitive questions before...

Last week, the Federal Housing Finance Agency released a map highlighting eligible borrower locations for its principal-reduction program and instructed servicers to begin soliciting borrowers. The interactive map highlights where the most eligible borrowers are located for its new principal reduction option for loan modifications. The number of borrowers eligible to take advantage of the program has declined some. When it was announced in April, the FHFA estimated that 33,622 borrowers would be eligible, but it has since lowered that estimate to 30,000. The FHFA attributes the reduction to a “continuously evolving housing market” that may have improved in some areas.