Harvard's Don Layton on creating more competition for Fannie and Freddie: “I have not encountered any knowledgeable people who think it could happen quickly."
Across the board, lenders are reporting stellar origination growth from the first to second quarters of the year, but the last two application surveys from the Mortgage Bankers Association showed weekly declines of 1.9% and 1.1%, respectively…
Jody Shenn, a senior analyst at Moody’s Investors Service, said, “ARRC’s recommendations and Fannie Mae’s and Freddie Mac’s ability to guide standards are signs that mostly uniform approaches will be used in mortgage originations.”
On Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans, originators are permitted to use ADU to underwrite loans based on employment-related retirement assets or “certain other assets of applicants who are near retirement,” the OCC noted.
Acting Ginnie Mae President Maren Kasper: “The RFI enables the agency to incorporate the views of a wide variety of stakeholders as we continue to refine the model, implement policy and evaluate potential risk to the U.S. housing finance system.”
According to new figures released by Black Knight, mortgage prepayments declined by 7.5% in June despite mortgage rates being under the 4.0% threshold. The data analytics firm said it was the first decline in prepays in five months. Go figure…
Veterans are charged a funding fee at origination to cover the cost of administering a VA-guaranteed loan. However, certain veterans are exempt from the fee…
Equifax, while agreeing to the settlement, denied the charges in a recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission: “The company’s participation in the consumer settlement does not constitute an admission by the company of any fault or liability, and the company does not admit fault or liability," the vendors said.
Back in early June, the share price of Fannie/Freddie common was rallying, reaching $3.16 (for the former) and $3.07 for the latter. If you had bought in at those prices, today you’d be looking at losses of 23.1% and 24.7%, respectively.