Secondary Market

Clear Capital’s quality control platform, ClearQC, has been selected as the technology of choice to validate appraisal data of submissions in Freddie Mac’s Uniform Collateral Data Portal (UCDP), the California-based data and tech provider announced.

Since 1998, second-home mortgages have averaged about 4.76 percent of the total purchase market, but the share is rising, according to Fannie Mae. While the purchase market increased four-fold from 1998 through the bubble years, the second-home mortgage market multiplied by 15 over the same years. The second-home mortgage market did decline significantly during the housing downturn, but today, it’s alive and well.

A new group has launched on the side of shareholders in the ongoing debate for the future of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Calling itself the “Coalition for Mortgage Security,” the group describes itself as a bipartisan, grassroots organization with the goal of reforming housing finance “in a way that benefits and fairly treats current and future homeowners, taxpayers, and investors across the country.”

Fannie Mae reported further contraction in its book of business for February—the second this year and the third in as many months—as new business acquisitions dropped to a five-year low. According to the enterprise’s monthly volume summary for February, business shrank at a compound annual rate of 1.4 percent, bringing the book’s total growth rate for the year to -2.4 percent.

Fannie Mae announced Friday revisions to its maximum fee assessment for servicers submitting late or inaccurate loan reports. According to the announcement, Fannie will fine servicers the greater of $250 or $50 per mortgage loan, with maximums starting at $5,000 for the first instance and climbing up to $15,000 for repeated incidents. The new fee structure goes into effect May 1, 2014.

Freddie Mac’s book of business declined during both of the first two months of this year with an annualized growth rate of -2.2 percent during the month of February, according to the GSE’s monthly volume summary. Year-to-date, the annualized growth rate for Freddie Mac’s portfolio is -2.0 percent, on par with the growth rate of -2.1 percent reported for the year in 2013.

In its weekly Primary Mortgage Market Survey, Freddie Mac reported an increase of 8 basis points in the 30-year fixed average rate, bringing up to 4.40 percent for the week ending March 27. Frank Nothaft, chief economist for Freddie Mac, explained the increase: “Mortgage rates rose following the uptick on the 10-year Treasury note after comments by the Federal Reserve Board Chair Janet Yellen indicated a possible increase in interest rates as soon as early 2015.”

Bank of America has agreed to a multibillion settlement with the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) to resolve allegations of securities fraud related to loans sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac at the height of the housing bubble. Under the agreement, BofA will make an aggregate payment of approximately $9.33 billion, $3.2 billion of which will go toward the repurchase of certain RMBS at fair market value.

After serving the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) for nearly six years, former acting director and current senior deputy director Edward DeMarco announced his intent to part ways with the agency at the end of April. DeMarco confirmed his departure plans in a letter directed to current agency director Mel Watt, saying, "I believe the time has come for me to seek other opportunities."

According to separate releases from both FHFA and Credit Suisse, the bank will pay approximately $234 million to Fannie Mae and approximately $651 to Freddie Mac—$885 total. The settlement—the ninth out of 18 suits filed against banks by the FHFA in 2011—closes all claims against Credit Suisse in two lawsuits: FHFA v. Credit Suisse, et al. and FHFA v. Ally Financial Inc., et al.