Tag Archives: Fannie Mae

Marking 19 consecutive months of appreciation, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) House Price Index rose 0.3 percent on a seasonally adjusted monthly basis in August. On a yearly basis, the index is up 8.5 percent. Of the nine census divisions, FHFA detected the greatest monthly price increase in the Mountain division, where prices increased 1.3 percent in August. The greatest monthly decrease took place in the South Atlantic division, where prices declined 0.5 percent.

While the government works toward GSE reform, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods (KBW), a financial services provider; says reform for the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) should also be a top concern.

JPMorgan Chase is reportedly set to pay a record $13 billion to the government to settle questions surrounding its sale of bonds backed by poor loans. An unidentified source reportedly told Bloomberg that JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon discussed the deal on Friday with U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder. According to that source, the discussed deal does not release the bank from potential claims of criminal liability at the insistence of Holder, who earlier this year remarked that some institutions may be "too big to jail."

Despite a decline in homeownership rates since the recession, Hispanics are even more likely to view homeownership favorably than the general population, according to Fannie Mae. The downside is that Hispanics are also more likely to anticipate difficulties in obtaining mortgage loans. Forty percent of homeowners in the overall population expressed concern about their ability to obtain a mortgage loan, but among the Hispanic population, 63 percent have concerns.

August's rising mortgage rates continued to impact refinance numbers reported by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency's (FHFA) latest data.

Overall, Fannie's outlook is "largely unchanged from the previous forecast," although "fiscal uncertainties associated with the federal government shutdown, the protracted negotiations to raise the debt ceiling, and the timing of the Federal Reserve's tapering of its asset purchase program, pose significant downside risks to economic activity in the current quarter," said Doug Duncan, chief economist at Fannie Mae. As such, the GSE is revising its forecasted GDP growth for this year from 2 percent to 1.9 percent.

With Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Acting Director Edward DeMarco considering lowering loan limits for the GSEs, congressional and industry leaders are speaking out against such a plan, saying it poses a threat of hindering the housing recovery. In the last week, the Mortgage Bankers Association, National Association of Federal Credit Unions, and 66 House representatives have all written to DeMarco, decrying the potential move and even questioning its legality.

Multifamily lenders provided a total of $146.1 billion in new mortgages for apartments with five or more units--a 33 percent increase from 2011, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA). "In many ways we were in a golden age of multifamily finance in 2012, that to a large extent continues today," said Jamie Woodwell, MBA's VP of commercial real estate finance. "Low interest rates, strong property fundamentals and increasing multifamily property prices are all supporting a very favorable lending environment."

SunTrust announced Thursday that it has taken further steps to clear up its mortgage problems with the government and with the GSEs. On top of an agreement reached with Freddie Mac at the end of September, SunTrust has settled with HUD, the Department of Justice, and the Federal Reserve for allegedly unsound practices with respect to its servicing and origination operations. The Atlanta-based lender estimates its third-quarter earnings will take a $179 million hit as a result.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) has taken the next step toward building a new common securitization platform for the GSEs with the filing of a certificate to establish a joint venture.