Tag Archives: Fannie Mae

Consumers apparently haven't gotten the memo that mortgage standards are tightening, if responses to Fannie Mae's January National Housing Survey are any indication: Fifty-two percent of respondents in the company's latest survey said they think it would be easy to get a mortgage today, reflecting a climb of 2 percentage points. The number of consumers saying it would be difficult to obtain a loan fell 3 points, meanwhile, dropping to 45 percent.

A new report from the Office of the Inspector General of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA OIG) finds the GSEs continue to purchase loans with red flags. After being directed to develop a uniform collateral data portal to assist in quality control, FHFA OIG says both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac made billions in purchases last year despite warnings from the portal regarding underwriting standards, property valuations, and even the state of appraisers' licenses.

In practice, Fannie and Freddie have dominated the mortgage finance market, prompting lawmakers from both ends of the political spectrum to take action.

Morgan Stanley is the latest company to make peace with the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) over alleged misrepresentation of bad securities sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

MountainView Servicing Group announced the offering of another Fannie Mae mortgage servicing rights (MSR) portfolio, this one with an unpaid principal balance of $2.4 billion. According to MountainView, the portfolio features 100 percent first-lien and 99.7 percent fixed-rate products (with 86 percent 30-year fixed-rate loans) and a weighted average interest rate of 3.69 percent. Bids for the portfolio are due February 6 at 3 p.m. Eastern.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency's (FHFA) monthly House Price Index (HPI) slowed its upward march substantially in November, rising only 0.1 percent compared to October's 0.5 percent. November's increase marked the 22nd straight monthly gain in FHFA's purchase-only, seasonally adjusted index. As of the end of the month, the U.S. index was 8.9 percent below its April 2007 peak, resting at roughly the same level as it was in April 2005.

Mortgage Industry Advisory Corporation (MIAC) announced two new mortgage servicing rights (MSR) portfolios totaling more than $694 million.

The American Enterprise Institute (AEI) has launched a new initiative designed to mitigate the damage of housing's boom-and-bust cycles. Designed by AEI fellows Edward Pinto and Stephen Oliner, the newly unveiled Mortgage Risk Index measures the safety of lending the United States by gauging how mortgage loans would perform under stress (as defined by the experience of loans originated in 2007). According to the index, mortgage risk today is high compared to the "sound lending practices in place in 1990."

Fannie Mae released on Monday its latest forecast, predicting overall GDP growth of 2.9 percent in 2014 following 2013's expected growth of 2.6 percent.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) announced Wednesday that it has directed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to delay implementation of planned changes to their guarantee fee (g-fee) structure.