The last-minute decision by the Trump administration to reduce GSE purchases of speculative and riskier loans had some unintended consequences.

Appraisers have dramatically reduced the use of prohibited words in their valuations, a sign Fannie has made strides in limiting bias against protected classes.

Mortgage industry stakeholders said Freddie Mac’s pilot program to alleviate repurchase requests is a better option than Fannie Mae’s new notice of potential defect.

Title insurance advocates are incensed by FHFA’s announcement that a once-dead title waiver pilot is alive and well.

Lenders will now be able to use a single verification report to validate income, employment, assets, positive rent payment and cash flow history. However, the report must have at least 12 months of data.

The regulator delayed implementation of the controversial bi-merge scoring model and accelerated the release of historical credit score data.

FHFA said proposed changes to the American Survey of Mortgage Borrowers will help to inform oversight of the GSEs and FHLBanks.

Agency veterans Anne Marie Pippin and Anju Vajja have taken over as deputy directors of the division of conservatorship, oversight and readiness, and the division research and statistics, respectively.

New research shows, in some instances, lenders passed on to borrowers as much as 120% of the cost of the fee, which ended in July 2021.

Lingering capital shortfalls belie higher net incomes at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mae in 2023. (Includes data table.)