The president wants Fannie and Freddie to buy $200 billion in agency MBS to lower interest rates and reduce the cost of buying a home. Initial reaction from MBS analysts was mixed.
Housing advocates say the new, lower benchmarks generally favor middle- and working-class borrowers at the expense low-income and very low-income borrowers.
A negative profitability gap means the guarantee fees on newly acquired loans weren’t enough to cover the expected cost of guaranteeing the loans and earning the expected return on capital.
Researchers tell Congress that, despite the role the FHLBanks played in the bank failures of 2023, a higher level of FHLBank borrowing has historically been associated with positive outcomes for members.
Although FHFA, under Director Bill Pulte, has shied away from the green and climate priorities of prior administrations, UAD 3.6 still allows green and energy efficiency features to impact valuations.
Between 2022 and 2024, Fannie’s open multifamily fraud investigations spiked from 14 to 193. In the same interval, actual fraud findings went from 3 to 87.
Don Layton, under whose leadership Freddie rolled out the first CRT transaction in 2012, said cracks in the GSEs’ CRT programs expose them to systemic risks. The cure: a new capital rule.
Fannie alerts seller/servicers to stiffer fraud detection rules. For example, lenders have 24 hours to report any borrower if they’re found on the Department of Treasury’s foreign assets control sanctions list.
UI researchers explore whether the GSEs, by accepting new loan products, can help alleviate the lock-in effect and improve affordability for homebuyers.
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