Fannie Launches Mobile App. Fannie Mae launched a new educational tool this week called HOME by Fannie Mae. The GSE said the mobile app helps educate future homeowners about the steps and responsibilities of buying and owning a home. With the app, potential homebuyers can figure out what they can afford, understand their monthly mortgage payments, how to save for a downpayment, and learn how much they can save in interest by making extra mortgage…
Activity in the non-agency MBS market involving nonperforming loans and re-performing loans is expected to continue to flourish through at least the end of this year, according to industry analysts. Vintage mortgages in scratch-and-dent deals accounted for 42.0 percent of the non-agency MBS issued in the first half of 2015, according to the Inside Mortgage Finance MBS Database. The $15.60 billion in scratch-and-dent volume included a mix of nonperforming loans and re-performing loans. Issuance of non-agency MBS backed by NPLs and RPLs through two quarters this year equaled...
A bipartisan pair of lawmakers from the House of Representatives found fault with the Obama administration this week for not making housing finance and reform of the government-sponsored enterprises a priority. Failing that, they’re not certain there would be enough support from both sides of the aisle to get a comprehensive bill pushed through the pipeline and signed by the president. “I don’t think the White House has sent a positive signal about participating in this process,” said Rep. Randy Neugebauer, R-TX, during a housing finance reform discussion in Washington, DC, this week sponsored by the Bipartisan Policy Center. “It’s such a big lift. You need to make sure that if you’re going down that road, that you have the opportunity to accomplish something.” His colleague, Rep. John Delaney, D-MD, agreed...
ABS issuance has climbed steadily since bottoming out in 2010, and this year is on track to exceed $200 billion in annual issuance for the first time in eight years.
While reform of the nation’s housing system and the government-sponsored enterprises languishes on Capitol Hill, three important GSE risk-sharing innovations could revolutionize housing finance independent of Congressional action, according to experts at the Urban Institute’s Housing Finance Policy Center. “Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have guaranteed at least half of all new mortgage originations for the past eight years. The two GSEs’ critical role ...
While the Federal Housing Finance Agency takes its time deciding whether nonbanks should be allowed to use captive insurance units to become members of a Federal Home Loan Bank, real estate investment trusts appear to be ramping up their borrowings from the system’s advance window. At least that’s what Inside Mortgage Finance found when it recently conducted a spot check of mortgage REITs that have gained access to the FHLBank system via a captive insurance subsidiary. Redwood Trust, for example, had...
Originations to first-time homebuyers perform worse than originations for repeat buyers, with the differences tied to factors beyond solely whether the borrower is a first-time homebuyer, according to new research from the Federal Housing Finance Agency. In a working paper published late last week, Saty Patrabansh, a senior economist at the FHFA, determined that the difference in performance between the first-time homebuyers and repeat buyers can be attributed to differences in the distributional make-up of the two groups and not to the premise that first-time homebuyers are an inherently riskier group. He analyzed...
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