Tag Archives: Freddie Mac

Freddie Mac's weekly Primary Mortgage Market Survey, released Thursday, shows the average rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) falling to 4.14 percent (0.5 point) for the week ending June 26, a continued slide from 4.17 percent last week .The declines follow Wednesday's report on gross domestic product in the first quarter, which surprised most analysts with news of a worse than expected contraction in the nation's economy.

A new report from the inspector general for the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) urges the agency to "assess the merits of litigation" in dealing with servicers and providers accused of abusing lender-placed insurance practices. In 2012, lender-placed insurance issues cost Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac a combined $360 million, the report says.

On Wednesday, Freddie Mac released its monthly Multi-Indicator Market Index (MiMi) showing mixed signals for the U.S. housing market, with most markets struggling to improve at a pace faster than a slow crawl. Despite declining mortgage delinquencies, improving local employment, house price gains, and attractive mortgage rates, most housing markets remain weak due to weak home purchase mortgage applications.

Freddie Mac's total mortgage portfolio decreased at an annualized rate of 2.1 percent in May, the company revealed in its latest volume summary. Purchases and issuances totaled $19.5 billion in May, down slightly from April’s figure of $19.8 billion. As of the end of May 2014, purchases and issuances totaled $91.8 billion.

Despite a disappointing first quarter and a mediocre second quarter, Freddie Mac still expects the economy to improve throughout the second half of 2014. The company is, however, tempering its New Year's optimism. In its June U.S. Economic and Housing Market Outlook, released Thursday, Freddie offers a mid-year assessment that sees more humble growth across most sectors.

A year ago, interest rates were on their way up on speculation that the Fed may soon start tapering its bond stimulus. Now that the central bank is on track to potentially end its stimulus purchases by the end of the year, rates have actually shown little movement, defying expectations. While the first quarter's economic contraction is partly responsible for rates staying put, analysts at Bankrate.com say developments overseas are also having an effect.

Despite earning record incomes in 2013, neither Fannie nor Freddie are in the clear financially yet, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) said in its latest review of the two GSEs. "The Enterprises remain exposed to credit, counterparty and operational risks. Credit risk management remains a key priority for both Enterprises given their substantial amount of remaining legacy distressed assets and ongoing stress in certain housing markets," FHFA said.

Speaking before an audience at the National Housing Conference Annual Policy Symposium in Washington, D.C., Mary Miller, the Department of the Treasury's undersecretary for domestic finance, painted a grim picture of housing finance as it stands, noting any perceived health at the GSEs has been the result of circumstances that wouldn't be matched in the private market.

A lot of first-time homebuyers overestimate the amount of money they need for a down payment, and that might be holding them back, says Freddie Mac VP Christina Boyle. In a blog post, Boyle cites a Zelman & Associates research study that found respondents, on average, believe lenders require a down payment of at least 11 to 15 percent, including a large population of people who are in their "prime homebuying years."

According to Freddie Mac, the average rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) was 4.20 percent (0.6 point) for the week ending June 12, an increase of 6 basis points from last week's report. Last year, the 30-year FRM hovered just below 4.0 percent. The increase followed last week's release of the May jobs report, which showed payrolls performing more or less as expected.