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Inside Mortgage Finance

June 10, 2010

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Agencies Continue to Dominate ‘Jumbo’ Market In Early 2010 Despite Declining Business Volume

Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the FHA accounted for nearly 60 percent of the financing of mortgages exceeding $417,000 during the first quarter of 2010, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance analysis. The three agencies generated $22.27 billion in business involving mortgages over $417,000 – the conforming loan limit in existence before Congress significantly... [Includes two charts] Read More

HUD Seeks Public Input as Officials Develop New RESPA Regulation on ‘Required Use’

The Department of Housing and Urban Development is seeking public comment on how to strengthen and clarify the existing prohibition against the “required use” of affiliated settlement service providers under the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act. Last week, HUD published a notice of proposed rulemaking soliciting information it might use to clarify the regulatory definition of... Read More

Conferees to Begin Reconciliation of Reg Reform Bill, Sources Say Senate Bill May be Basis for Discussion

The first open meeting of the House-Senate conference to resolve differences between the regulatory reform bills each chamber has passed begins this week after the final list of conferees is announced, with gavel-to-gavel coverage provided by C-SPAN. House Republicans were expected to announce their conferees earlier this week following a list of Democratic appointees... Read More

House to Consider Relatively Short List of Amendments in Floor Debate of FHA Bill

The House Rules Committee this week approved a plan to consider 13 amendments from both sides of the aisle when the FHA Reform Act of 2010 comes to a floor debate late this week. The rule was approved on a largely partisan vote of 239 to 172. The legislation, H.R. 5072, was approved by the House Financial Services Committee in late April. Based largely on legislative proposals from the Obama... Read More

Banks Continue to Report Strong Earnings from Mortgage Banking Despite Slump in New Lending

As a profit center for commercial banks, mortgage banking has rebounded strongly since the turmoil of 2007 and 2008, according to Inside Mortgage Trends, an affiliated newsletter. Commercial banks reported a combined $4.67 billion in net income from mortgage banking activity during the first quarter of this year. Although that was down 22 percent from the... [Includes one chart] Read More

Treasury Department Releases Principal Reduction Guidelines for HAMP, Interprets Servicer Safe Harbor

Servicers handling loans pooled in non-agency mortgage securities or held in an investor’s portfolio received marching orders this week on implementation of the Obama administration’s plan for modifying seriously underwater mortgages. The Principal Reduction Alternative is another wrinkle in the Home Affordable Modification Program that was designed for distressed mortgages that have a current... Read More

Wall Street Shows No Preference for Any of the Proposals for Remaking Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac

Wall Street generally thinks the woes of the housing and mortgage markets will probably linger for the next three years, but there is no consensus in the capital markets about how to rebuild or replace Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to hasten the recovery. Speaking on a panel during the American Securitization Forum’s annual meeting in New York City this week, Laurie Goodman... Read More

Economists Suggest Scaled-Back, Smaller, Privatized GSEs Sans Portfolios, and Private Sector Competitors

A pair of moderate Republican economists has come up with a comprehensive plan to restructure Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into privatized entities with only one raison d’être: providing support for conforming mortgage markets. “Under our proposal, Fannie and Freddie would emerge from conservatorship as fully private companies, with a simpler mandate: to securitize and guarantee... Read More

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