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Inside Mortgage Finance

December 4, 2008

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Markets Respond Favorably to Fed’s $600 Billion Pledge, But Is it Enough to Spur a Refinance Boom?

Financial markets enthusiastically embraced the Federal Reserve’s decision last week to buy $100 billion of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and Federal Home Loan Bank debt, and $500 billion of mortgage-backed securities issued by Fannie and Freddie as well as by Ginnie Mae. One week after the Fed announced its big move, mortgage rates dropped well below 6.0 percent to their lowest... Read More

GSEs Walk High Wire Between Returning to Profitability and Aiding Faltering Market

The Federal Reserve’s aggressive new plan to buy up to $500 billion of agency mortgage-backed securities may relieve some of the pressure on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to help bolster a flagging mortgage business, but the government-sponsored enterprises continue to face a tough challenge in trying to balance conflicting priorities. While some have blamed the collapse of... Read More

Title, Real Estate Industries Winners in RESPA Rule, Homebuilders, Mortgage Brokers Mull Lawsuits

Some mortgage settlement businesses won significant concessions from the Department of Housing and Urban Development as it finalized new Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act regulations, while other sectors didn’t fare so well, according to a legal analysis of the rule. Attorneys with the Washington law firm K&L Gates concluded that the title and real estate industries came away with... Read More

Top Lenders Receive Mixed Grades on Lending In Distressed Mortgage Climate, New Study Finds

This year’s massive consolidation in the banking industry has helped produce a handful of “mega-mortgage lenders” that currently account for most of the residential loans being made in the country. But these new mortgage-producing behemoths are far from equal when it comes to originating loans in the current distressed lending environment. According to a new Inside Mortgage Finance-sponsored... Read More

GSE Loan Modification Efforts Peaked in June, Regulator Says

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac need to do more to help distressed borrowers avoid foreclosure, according to federal regulators who cited a slump in mitigation activities by the government-sponsored enterprises late this summer. During August, the most recent data available, the GSEs reported 15,528 foreclosures – well above the monthly average of 12,701, according... Read More

Depleted Thrift Industry Records Big Loss in Third Quarter, Declining Origination Numbers

Several of the top thrift mortgage producers went out of business during the third quarter of 2008, as the industry recorded its fourth consecutive quarterly loss. The Office of Thrift Supervision said institutions it regulates lost a whopping $3.988 billion during the third quarter of 2008, bringing year-to-date losses to $15.079 billion. A number of the major... [Includes two charts] Read More

Fed Governor Presents Study to Debunk Critics’ Claims that CRA is to Blame for Subprime Mess

A top Federal Reserve Board official this week disputed conservatives’ claims that the Community Reinvestment Act played a major role in the country’s current financial crisis. In remarks during a Fed policy forum on concentrated poverty in America, Fed Governor Randall Kroszner said an agency study debunks assertions that the CRA was at the root of, or somehow... Read More

Mortgage Litigation Surges in Third Quarter; More Ahead

Legal actions tied to mortgage compliance, mortgage fraud and regulatory orders have spiked in the third quarter of 2008, according to an analysis by Washington, D.C.-based law firm Weiner Brodsky Sidman Kider. Lawsuits and regulatory actions tied to compliance violations totaled 18 in the third quarter, rising from just three cases covered in the previous quarter and one during the... Read More

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