The U.S. Senate voted late last week to approve an amendment to a federal spending bill that was offered by Sens. Bob Menendez, D-NJ, and Johnny Isakson, R-GA, to reinstate the higher loan limits for Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Housing Administration that expired on Sept. 30. Those limits dropped to $625,500 in a number of high-cost markets on Oct. 1, and would be restored to $729,750 through December 2013 under the Menendez/Isakson amendment. The National Association of Home Builders was pleased.
The Senate voted this week to reinstate the higher conforming loan limit that expired at the end of September, heeding calls by the real estate and mortgage industries. On a vote of 60-38, lawmakers passed an amendment to the FY2012 funding bill, S. 1596, for the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which, among other things, would raise the maximum loan amount that can be guaranteed by FHA, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Introduced by Sen. Robert Menendez, D-NJ, the amendment restores the 125 percent median home price formula used to calculate the temporary higher loan limits in effect prior to Oct. 1, which was up to $729,750 in certain high-cost areas of the country and lower in other jurisdictions. After Oct. 1, the new loan limit calculation was ...
“Is a 30-year FRM always the best option for consumers?” asked Sen. Richard Shelby at a hearing held by the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee this week. The Alabama Republican was raising an issue that lies at the foundation of any new mortgage finance system the government may try to cook up. The 30-year FRM, a staple in the U.S. housing market for generations, has come to rely on the separation of credit risk and interest rate risk that results from a government-backed mortgage securitization system. “Securitization by Fannie and Freddie make them possible,” said John Fenton, president and CEO of Affinity Federal Credit Union. “Without...
The status quo in the MBS market – suffocating domination by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae – isn’t likely to change for the next five years, or longer, according to industry experts at this week’s ABS East conference in Miami sponsored by Information Management Network. Although a number of industry groups have offered proposals similar to the third option outlined by the Treasury Department in its reform white paper – a more competitive market of issuers backed by private capital that issue MBS with backstop guarantees from the government – those proposals are far from uniform, said Laurie Goodman, senior managing director at...
Women, on average, pay more for mortgages than men even after taking into account variables like borrower characteristics, mortgage features and market conditions, according to a new study published in the Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics. The authors, economists Ping Cheng, Zhenguo Lin and Yingchun Liu, suggest that the difference may have more to do with the way men and women seek out lenders than gender discrimination by lenders. The study – “Do Women Pay More for Mortgages?” – notes that the share of single women homebuyers doubled from about one in ten homebuyers 15 years ago to about one in five in 2003. More than...
The Obama administration’s Housing Scorecard for September paints a reasonably rosy picture of efforts to help troubled homeowners and future market prospects. With record low mortgage interest rates, housing affordability increased modestly. But the number of new default notices rose from 59,500 in August to 78,900, which is still well below the 96,500 level of a year ago. Notably, sales of real estate owned properties were down this period. Preliminary numbers from July 2011 show that there were 46,200 REO sales, as opposed to 62,200 in June and 61,800 a year ago. New home sales were down slightly in...
The ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is calling on the Federal Housing Finance Agency to “give serious consideration” to shuttering Fannie Mae’s Retained Attorney Network, but not before answering questions and providing documents about the FHFA’s oversight of the program.
The Federal Housing Finance Agency knew or should have known about improper foreclosure practices involving Fannie Mae affiliated law firms long before the Finance Agency began a review, according to the regulator’s official watchdog.The FHFA Office of Inspector General’s latest audit found that the FHFA did not investigate complaints about Fannie’s Retained Attorney Network until August 2010 in the wake of negative news reports alleging that RAN attorneys had engaged in inappropriate foreclosure practices, such as routinely filing false documents in court proceedings and “robo-signing.”
The Federal Housing Finance Agency’s announcement last month that it is considering increased risk sharing with mortgage insurers, which could mitigate the negative effect of conforming mortgage guarantee fee increases over the coming years, while the Federal Reserve’s recently unveiled “Operation Twist” is likely to provide a “modest near-term boost to mortgage markets,” according to a report by Moody’s Investors Service.
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