The Federal Housing Finance Agency this week announced a second winning bidder of its pilot program to move GSE real estate-owned properties from money-losing foreclosures to money-making rentals and eventually off the books entirely. The FHFA announced that New York-based Cogsville Group LLC was the winning bidder of 94 Fannie Mae-owned properties as part of the FHFA’s REO pilot initiative. The firm paid $2.1 million for a share in a joint venture with Fannie, resulting in an estimated transaction value to the GSE of $11.8 million or 86.2 percent of the properties’ estimated value, according to the transaction summary.

It looks like the controversial risk-retention proposal won’t be issued by federal regulators until sometime next year, as major components of the Dodd-Frank Act remain in limbo. “I think much of the Dodd-Frank regulatory process is on hold until after the elections, and we’re unlikely to see decisions on most major issues until sometime in 2013,” said Steven Abrahams, an analyst at Deutsche Bank Securities. “The only process that seems to be rolling is the one run by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to define mortgage origination and servicing standards.” As he sees it, “the first half of next year will probably see...

New temporary guidelines for approving FHA financing for condominium projects should boost sales of condo units across the country and improve current housing market conditions, according to industry stakeholders. The Department of Housing and Urban Development announced the guideline changes on Sept. 13 after extensive consultations with industry participants. Effective for all condo project approvals and recertifications, the revised guidelines will apply until Aug. 31, 2014, unless extended by the FHA. Stakeholders are confident that the changes, though temporary, will be ...

Fixed-rate mortgages comprised most of August’s FHA production, which totaled $22.1 billion, up 13.2 percent from July and 37.9 percent from a year ago, according to an Inside FHA Lending analysis of FHA data. FRMs accounted for 98.9 percent of new loans with FHA insurance in August. In-house originations made up 79.6 percent of new endorsements while purchase loans accounted for 56.1 percent of FHA originations during the month. Wells Fargo is the only top FHA lender to exceed the billion-dollar mark. In fact, the bank reported $2.2 billion in new FHA originations, 76.0 percent of which were produced in-house. The purchase mortgage share of Well’s total FHA originations was ... [2 charts]

The Federal Housing Finance Agency’s Office of Inspector General reported last week that Freddie Mac will increase its repurchase requests to between $0.8 billion and $1.2 billion this year and between $2.2 billion and $3.4 billion overall following its review of the GSE’s settlement agreement with Bank of America in January 2011. A year ago the OIG took the FHFA to task for approving what the IG considered a lowball $1.35 billion agreement from BofA to Freddie to settle current and future repurchase claims.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency incorrectly piggybacked and failed to independently verify Fannie Mae’s and Freddie Mac’s mandated assurances or “covenants” that the GSEs were in compliance with the Treasury Department’s terms in exchange for taxpayer support during conservatorship, according to a recent report by the FHFA’s official watchdog. The FHFA’s Office of Inspector General noted a “gap” in the Finance Agency’s compliance with the terms of the preferred stock purchase agreement with the Treasury.“Until June 2012, FHFA did not provide Treasury with a certification that the enterprises’ filings and related documents were free of materially false or misleading statements,” said the OIG report, issued in August.

As Congress returns from its August recess next week for an abbreviated legislative session, mortgage market watchers inside the Capitol Hill beltway forecast a significant shift in the focus of those seeking to oust the current head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency. When Congress adjourned for the summer six weeks ago, lawmakers were alternately fuming or lauding the long-awaited decision by FHFA Acting Director Edward DeMarco to not allow Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to implement the Treasury Department’s Home Affordable Modification Principal Reduction Alternative.

Guaranty fees that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac charge lenders will rise later this year following a directive from the GSEs’ conservator but industry officials note concern about the potential unintended consequences of spurring additional, future g-fee hikes too soon. Late last week, the Federal Housing Finance Agency announced g-fees on single-family will rise another 10 basis points. The increase is effective Dec. 1, 2012, for loans exchanged for mortgage-backed securities, and on Nov. 1, 2012, for loans sold for cash.

The reverse mortgage lending industry urged state regulators to update the existing reverse mortgage examination guidelines (RMEG) to conform to regulatory changes that have occurred in the market in the last three years. The National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association (NRMLA) submitted proposed changes to the Conference of State Bank Supervisors regarding term definitions, examiner checklist, product descriptions, comparison worksheet, mandatory housing counseling, as well as other sections. The CSBS jointly published the ...

The Treasury Department’s surprise announcement late last week that it will now “sweep” up any and all future profits from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in lieu of the dividends the GSEs had been paying in return for taxpayer support solves some problems but creates new ones, industry observers say. Rather than continue to borrow from the Treasury to make dividend payments to the Treasury – as the GSEs have since they were placed in conservatorship in September 2008 – the revised preferred stock purchase agreements will replace the 10 percent quarterly dividend with a “full income sweep” of “every dollar of profit that each firm earns going forward,” according to Michael Stegman, counselor to the Treasury for Housing Finance Policy.