Until the Treasury Department and the Federal Housing Finance Agency amended their preferred stock purchase agreement in January, a $25 billion net worth was the threshold for restarting the net worth sweep of Fannie's quarterly profits.
Rather than ending the net worth sweep outright and agreeing to write off some of its preferred shares, Treasury is essentially simply allowing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to continue their practice of retaining earnings.
On the rural housing front, Freddie expects to increase its SFI purchase target from 3,600 to 3,900 loans in 2020 to as much as 4,800 units this year...
Questions posed by the FHFA include whether the GSEs should use appraisal waivers and how lenders might manipulate automated underwriting systems when seeking an appraisal wavier from the GSEs.