Daily Dose

U.S. Representative Ed Royce (R-California), a senior member of the House Financial Services Committee, has issued a statement calling the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA)'s announcement that the Agency will divert GSE money to the Housing Trust Fund and Capital Magnet Fund "outrageous."

In a recent letter addressed to Treasury Secretary Jack Lew and Mel Watt, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), the Community Mortgage Lenders of America (CMLA) urged the government to "take immediate action to cure the under-capitalization" of the GSEs by re-amending the payment terms established when they were forced to take a bailout after the crash.

Following a four-point uptick in November, the National Association of Home Builders' (NAHB) Housing Market Index dropped one point to 57 in December, the group said Monday. A reading above 50 indicates that market conditions are viewed more as good than bad.

what happens when your new mortgage applicant gets declined for the loan they want? Is that money spent getting them to contact you wasted? Do you send them packing? Contributors Jim Ryan and Greg Holmes explore other possibilities for turning "almost there" applicants into happy homeowners.

The offering, announced Friday, consists of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgages with more than $2.7 billion in unpaid principal balance, according to MountainView Servicing Group, which is acting as advisor on the sale. Bids are due December 18.

The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan survey of consumer sentiment came in at a preliminary index reading of 93.8 for December, up from November's final reading of 88.8. December's report beat economists' forecasts by more than four points and puts the index at its highest level since January 2007.

Fannie Mae has expanded its risk sharing offerings with Wednesday's announcement of a credit insurance risk transfer (CIRT) deal, which transfers the credit risk on a pool of loans from the taxpayers to a panel of domestic reinsurers. The new deal fulfills one of the 2014 Conservatorship Scorecard goals, which was to complete a variety of risk sharing transactions.

Looking at the year ahead, Fitch predicts a bounce in both supply and demand for homes as the economy continues to steadily expand and both employment measures and consumer confidence see improvement. With housing starts and new home sales expected to advance, Fitch sees a possibility of higher revenues for homebuilders.

A $1.1 trillion congressional spending bill proposed this week may avoid another government shutdown, but officials at the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) are less than impressed at the absence of funds for certain agency initiatives. "We are deeply disappointed programs that could have served millions of families will not be permitted under the bill," said Acting FHA Commissioner Biniam Gebre in a statement Thursday.

In a survey of 45 economists conducted by the Wall Street Journal, the panel largely agreed that throughout all of 2014, housing proved to be the weakest link in the economic chain, with weak household formations weighing down on demand and production.