After much speculation, the Federal Housing Finance Agency raised the 2017 conforming loan limit for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgages to $424,100. This is the first time the loan limit climbed above $417,000 in 10 years.
Fairholme Funds officials this week continued to press their case for restoring shareholder rights for private investors in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, expressing hope that the incoming Trump administration will be friendlier to their cause.
Inside-the-Beltway analysts are predicting that financial regulation and new agency leadership posts will be a primary battleground in the incoming Trump administration.
Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-TX, and chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, touted the benefits of the republican’s PATH Act to create a sustainable housing finance system.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have sold more than 59,629 nonperforming loans with a total unpaid principal balance of $11.9 billion, through August 2016, according to a new Federal Housing Finance Agency report.
-“While plaintiffs did not begrudge defendant a reasonable time to review the court’s decision, it is apparent that the defendant has now settled on a legal strategy but is unwilling to disclose that strategy to the extent doing so would require it to produce documents prior to the D.C. Circuit’s anticipated ruling,” Fairholme argued in court papers.
CEO Debra Still of Pulte Mortgage blamed low usage on the fact that Fannie and Freddie use different terminology and eligibility criteria for things like area median income.