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Inside Mortgage Finance

August 5, 2010

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Industry’s Preferred Housing Finance Reform Mechanism, the MCGE, Has Many Unknowns

The idea to create smaller, more narrowly focused mortgage securitizers with government charters looks like an early frontrunner in the unpredictable marathon to overhaul the mortgage finance system, and it could provide for a fairly seamless transition if the existing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac infrastructure is adapted. Although some 300 comment letters were submitted... Read More

Mortgage Servicing Market Continues Shrinking In the Second Quarter, Wells Narrows the Gap

Most of the top mortgage servicers in the industry reported further declines in the balance of loans in their portfolio during the second quarter of 2010, continuing a downward trend that’s been in progress for two years. Bank of America remained the largest servicer in the industry with a $2.135 trillion portfolio as of the end of June... [Includes one chart and one graph] Read More

Community Interest, Consumer Groups Suggest GSEs Need to Be Re-Focused

Consumer and community interest groups favor continuing government support for the secondary mortgage market, but unlike industry trade groups and lenders they say that support should still be coupled with affordability goals – and they want a bigger emphasis on multifamily housing. In responses to the Obama administration’s solicitation of views on reform of the mortgage finance... Read More

Secondary Market Agency Throws a Whammy At Popular Home Improvement Program

The Federal Housing Finance Agency has effectively shut down a popular state-run program that finances home energy-improvement projects and had strong endorsement from the Obama administration. Although the FHFA, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have yet to release more detailed lender guidance for Property Assessed Clean Energy programs, an FHFA directive issued last month suggests that new... Read More

California Takes Bigger Share of GSE Business In Early 2010; New York Reclaims Second Place

California regained some luster in the first half of 2010, stretching its share of the mortgage market financed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to 22.4 percent, up from 18.6 percent for all of last year, according to a new special report based on the Inside Mortgage Finance MBS Database. California picked up market share by posting a smaller decline... [Includes one chart] Read More

Private MIs Make Pitch for Maintaining a Role in Emerging Mortgage Finance System

Battered by the housing recession and surgically attached to the two giant secondary market agencies now in government conservatorship, private mortgage insurance appears to enjoy solid political support for a revitalized role in the mortgage finance system. During a hearing last week in the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Capital Markets... Read More

Congress Retains FHA, Ginnie Mae Funding at Current Levels in FY 2011 Bill

The House of Representatives last week passed fiscal 2011 budget legislation retaining the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s level of loan commitments from the previous fiscal year under its single-family home mortgage and agency securitization programs. On July 29, House lawmakers approved the FY 2011 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development... Read More

House Committee Approves Authorization For National Fair Housing/Lending Testing

The House Financial Services Committee last week approved legislation aimed at preventing housing and mortgage lending discrimination through the use of nationwide testing after cutting a total of $15.0 million from the budgets proposed for the program and other fair housing initiatives. The committee passed H.R. 476, the Veterans, Women, Families with Children, and Persons with... Read More

NAREB Fights for Mortgage Reform, Increased Minority Homeownership

Amid concern that minority groups have been disproportionately affected by the subprime mortgage crisis and subsequent economic recession, the National Association of Real Estate Brokers has made equal housing opportunities for underserved populations a main priority. According to a new report from the Center for Responsible Lending, an estimated 17 percent of... Read More

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