Inspired by a law currently on the books and in dispute in Chicago, state lawmakers in Illinois have filed a vacant property registration law requiring mortgage holders to keep up homes in foreclosure or face costly fines. The bill, SB 16, outlines a framework for municipalities to pass vacant property ordinances requiring mortgage holders to register a property that has been vacant for more than 30 days and to re-register the property every six months. The mortgage holder would also be required to secure and maintain the property, with fines ranging from $500 to $1,000 per day if the requirements are not met.

The Federal Home Loan Bank Office of Finance announced this week that preliminary combined net income for the FHLBanks jumped 42.3 percent to $733 million in the first quarter of 2012, up from $515 million from the end of the fourth quarter and a whopping 104.7 percent increase from the same period last year. The FHLBank system’s $375 million year-over-year income increase was driven by lower other-than-temporary impairment charges, higher net gains on derivatives, hedged items and financial instruments carried at fair value, and lower assessments, partially offset by lower net interest income, said the Office of Finance.

The GSE executive exodus continued last week with the announcement that the executive who oversees Freddie Mac’s single-family mortgage business has resigned. Anthony Renzi, Freddie’s executive vice president of single-family business, operations and information technology, will leave the company effective May 11, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Renzi, who came to Freddie after being forced out of GMAC Mortgage in April 2010, will join Citigroup Inc. as its new chief operating officer. The company said Paul Mullings, senior vice president of single-family sourcing and securitization, will take over Renzi’s duties on an interim basis.

Don’t expect the long-awaited White House plan to wind down Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac “anytime soon,” an Obama administration official told lawmakers last week. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan told members of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee that the administration has made “significant” strides toward bringing private capital back into the housing market without help from Congress. However, the GSE overhaul promised for the first of the year needs more work, he said.

Dividend payments paid by Freddie Mac to the U.S. Treasury for its continued financial support held down the GSE during the first quarter of 2012 as Freddie would have otherwise posted a profit. Freddie, which posted its first quarter results late this week, actually reported $577 million in net income during the first three months of this year before having to repay $1.8 billion in preferred stock dividends to the government. Under the terms of the GSEs’ purchase agreement, the Treasury is entitled to a dividend of 10 percent per year on a quarterly basis. Freddie’s first quarter dividend payment more than offset the company’s comprehensive income of $1.79 billion, prompting the GSE to seek another $19 million from taxpayers.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency is still mulling over accepting principal reduction payments from the Treasury Department even as the debate between the factions for and against GSE loan writedowns is quickly dissolving into a partisan food fight. This week, two ranking House Republicans urged FHFA Acting Director Edward DeMarco to stand fast against mounting political pressure directed at him by the Congressional allies of the Obama administration as House Democrats took the gloves off, accusing the Finance Agency of falsely withholding pertinent information about the agency’s principal reduction analysis.

NMI Holdings, Inc. has raised $550 million in initial capitalization to provide private mortgage insurance on loans sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The money was raised through the sale of common stock in a private offering underwritten and placed by Arlington, VA-based investment bank FBR, which reportedly has a less than 5 percent stake in the new company. FBR declined to comment on the NMI transaction, citing restrictions on what it and NMI can disclose or say over the next couple of months. NMI is currently working on obtaining approvals from state insurance regulators across the country and approvals...

Although the Obama administration has failed to put forth any definitive proposal for mortgage finance reform and Congress has made little progress on the issue, some researchers are urging policymakers to reduce the role of government as much as possible. “I would dearly love to get rid of the government guarantee,” said Anthony Sanders, professor and senior scholar at George Mason University’s Mercatus Center during a panel discussion in Washington, DC, regarding the future of the government-sponsored enterprises. He added, however, that housing policy must carefully avoid creating a market...

The ongoing feud between Congressional Democrats and the Federal Housing Finance Agency appeared to boil over this week as the FHFA’s head answered back to charges that he’s been holding back pertinent information about the agency’s analysis of principal reductions. In a May 1 public letter to FHFA Acting Director Edward DeMarco, Reps. Elijah Cummings, D-MD, and John Tierney, D-MA, accused the agency head of playing fast and loose with the facts regarding a previously unreported 2010 Fannie Mae pilot program to forgive a borrower’s mortgage debt, as well as the facts buttressing the FHFA’s position...

Mortgage lenders large, small and in-between jockeyed for position against a backdrop of slowing new home loan originations during the first quarter of 2012. A new Inside Mortgage Finance market analysis and ranking found that an estimated $385.0 billion in new single-family mortgages were originated during the first three months of the year. That was down 3.8 percent from the fourth quarter. The two most striking trends were that 10 of the top 25 lenders posted increased production volume while the others reported declines – some of which were substantial – and nearly all top...(Includes two data charts)