Tag Archives: Freddie Mac

Freddie Mac's total mortgage portfolio continued to shrink in February, contracting at an annualized rate of 4.1 percent.

According to Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage Market Survey, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 3.57 percent (0.8 point) for the week ending March 28, up from 3.54 percent the previous week. Last year at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 3.99 percent. Bankrate.com reported slight decline in the 30-year fixed average, meanwhile. According to the site's weekly survey, the average 30-year rate fell from 3.78 percent to 3.75 percent in the last week.

The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) endorsed a housing finance system that phases out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac but maintains a degree of federal support.

FHFA-OIG released an audit report examining oversight of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's monitoring of businesses that sell and service loans.

According to a report from the FHFA Office of Inspector General (OIG), Freddie Mac and eight of its largest servicers, which service 70 percent of the GSE's mortgages, received over 34,000 complaints that became escalated cases during a 14-month time period ending November 30, 2012. In examining those cases, FHFAOIG says it found a failure to implement guidelines for escalated complaints. For example, seven out of the eight servicers did not resolve all escalated cases within the 30-day requirement.

After spiking last week, mortgage rates took a dive this week as tension broke out in Europe over the financial crisis in the island country of Cyprus.

The story of the London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor) scandal added another chapter in March as Freddie Mac brought suit against Barclays, Bank of America, Citibank, and several other institutions for investment losses related to alleged rate-rigging practices.

Three industry analysts gave testimony before a Senate committee on housing finance reform Tuesday. While all three experts expressed support for more private capital and less government involvement, the proposed degrees of government support varied. Currently, about 90 percent of single-family mortgages have some form of government backing.

In a letter addressed to the president as well as the Senate majority and minority leaders, a group of attorneys general representing nine states refer to Edward DeMarco, acting head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, as a "direct impediment to our economic recovery" and called for his replacement. The attorneys' general complaint stems from DeMarco's refusal to allow the GSEs to engage in principal reductions for struggling and underwater homeowners.

If projections hold out, home values will rise 22 percent cumulatively by the end of 2017, according to Zillow's first-quarter Home Price Expectations Survey. On average, the panel forecasts price growth of 4.6 percent in 2013 and 4.2 percent in 2014. More moderate growth is expected after that, with annual appreciation rates between 3.6 percent and 3.8 percent for 2015, 2016, and 2017, leading to an average 4.1 percent growth annually for the next five years.