Once the housing and financial markets recover from the recent economic turmoil, shutting down Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would have a minimal impact on housing starts nationally and on the economy as a whole, according to a paper by the Heritage Foundation. The recent paper, The Role of the GSEs in the Housing Market, concludes that ending the GSEs and the accompanying mortgage interest rate subsidy of 25-to-50 basis points Fannie and Freddie provide…
The Federal Housing Finance Agency is keeping a close eye on large-scale servicing transfers because it is concerned about capacity issues that might arise from smaller players taking down portfolios that significantly increase their overall processing volume. According to industry advisors and servicing executives familiar with the issue, FHFA played a key role in Bank of America’s recent sale of $306 billion of mortgage servicing rights to Nationstar Mortgage and Walter Investment Management Corp. One source familiar with the deal said FHFA asked that Nationstar not take down the entire portfolio and that it be broken up into more than one piece. A spokeswoman for FHFA declined to comment on the matter to Inside The GSEs.
Lenders of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgages say that recently rolled out GSE guidelines intended to boost refinance activity won’t do any harm but also won’t likely have more than a modest impact. The GSEs’ recently issued guidance will soon allow lenders to offer a “refinancing incentive” to underwater borrowers so they may obtain a lower payment or move to a more stable product or a shorter term. …
Bruce Witherell, a former top executive of Freddie Mac, has emerged as a key player in the new mortgage investing real estate investment trust being launched by Cerberus. Witherell, who was a chief operating officer at Freddie from 2009 to 2011, is chairman of Cerberus Mortgage Capital, a real estate investment trust that hopes to raise at least $150 million through an initial public offering. At Freddie, Witherell was in charge of day-to-day operations of three lines of business: single-family, multifamily and capital markets.
Average loan-to-value ratios and debt-to-income ratios on loans securitized by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were slightly lower – and credit scores edged slightly higher – during the fourth quarter, according to a new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis. The average LTV ratio edged down from 78.53 percent in the third quarter to 77.54 percent in the final three months of 2012. The average DTI ratio declined slightly, from 31.92 percent to 31.88 percent, while the average ... [Includes one data chart]
Thanks, in part, to HARP loans private mortgage insurers in 2012 posted their best year since the financial market collapse back in 2008, according to new figures compiled by Inside Mortgage Finance.
It remains to be seen how or whether a newly signed law in Illinois to fast-track certain foreclosures will impact a proposal by the Federal Housing Finance Agency to levy extra guaranty fee charges on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgages originated in five slow-foreclosure states, including Illinois, but experts say other states may be inspired to follow suit. Last week, Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn, D, signed into law SB 16, which among other provisions, would allow servicers to expedite the foreclosure timelines for abandoned or vacant homes from about 18 months to as little as 90 days. Although the bill was...
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