Loans that qualify for purchase by the GSEs will continue to be exempt from the 43% debt-to-income ratio cap. This development was not unexpected. In July, the CFPB said it would consider a short extension.
One of the key jobs of the Financial Stability Oversight Council is to make suggestions and recommendations to regulators to avoid SIFI designations, the FHFA director said.
Policy changes impacting 15% of GDP in an election year are inherently risky, according to Isaac Boltansky of Compass Point. The result, he said, is likely to be “a long and winding road” toward housing-finance reform.
The GSEs’ loan performance data excludes various loan types, such as ARMs and low-documentation loans, that performed poorly in the financial crisis. Nearly half of the GSE loans originated in 2006 and 2007 are expurgated from the data provided to CRT investors.
The Supreme Court will not hear arguments in Collins v. Mnuchin in its current session, but the issue of the constitutionality of the single-director status of the FHFA is still alive. That’s because oral arguments in Seila Law v. CFPB, a case addressing similar issues, are scheduled for early March.
The bulk of Fannie Mae’s and Freddie Mac’s prevention actions were aimed at home retention, with 20,370 loans modified, repayment plans negotiated on 5,965 delinquent loans and 3,328 units receiving some sort of forbearance.