Tag Archives: Fannie Mae

Mortgage rates largely stayed the same this week as trouble in the euro zone threatened to upend global financial markets, encouraging investors to stay near the safe haven of U.S. Treasury debt. Mortgage giant Freddie Mac and finance Web site Bankrate.com released separate weekly surveys that found rates hovering at or above figures seen for several weeks in a row. The GSE noted averages for the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage reaching 4 percent ├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├óÔé¼┼ô the fifth consecutive week for lows for the benchmark loan.

Mortgage Information Services, Inc., has completed its testing by the Federal Housing Finance Agency, and the company has been approved, taking its connection with the UCDP live.

A failure by lawmakers to slash $1.2 trillion from the national debt spurred Fitch Ratings to place U.S. debt on negative outlook Monday, a move that immediately hit GSEs Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac by association. The ratings agency revised a stable outlook for debt held by Fannie and Freddie to negative, even while it reaffirmed AAA-ratings in place for the GSEs. Multiple news reports suggest that Fitch will likely downgrade credit ratings for the U.S. federal government, along with Fannie and Freddie.

Embattled mortgage insurer The PMI Group, Inc., caved in to state-imposed roadblocks by voluntarily filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Wednesday. The move comes a day before a major U.S. holiday and on the heels of a seizure of subsidiaries PMI Mortgage Insurance Co. and PMI Insurance Co. by state regulators with the Arizona Department of Insurance. PMI said that $685 million in senior unsecured notes and about $51.5 million in junior unsecured notes became immediately due and payable as a result of the bankruptcy filing.

One online lender is handling the refinancing rush by targeting borrowers who are eligible for the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP).

After several weeks of intense deliberation, with backers and supporters on both sides, Congress again raised limits for Federal Housing Administration conforming loans to $729,750, which President Barack Obama signed off on Friday. House lawmakers included an amendment to raise the limits in a stopgap spending measure cobbled together by both houses to keep the government running through December this year. The House voted for the bill by a 298-121 margin, which the Senate followed with 70 yeas and 30 nays. Trade groups rushed to extol the raised limits.

Even with a pickup in the general economy, overall growth will remain flat into the New Year, slowing any impact from the housing market and delaying significant changes, according to a think tank internal to Fannie Mae. The mortgage company described circumstances going forward as those vulnerable to weak jobs growth, external shocks from the euro zone, and pickups or drops in consumer spending and confidence. Troubled euro zone markets continued to weigh down on the forecast.

With homeowners largely staying on the sidelines, mortgage application volume underwent a seasonally adjusted 10-percent squeeze last week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. In releasing the Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey, the trade group found that declines overwhelmingly led most of the survey components. The MBA found the Market Composite Index declining by 19.6 percent on a seasonally unadjusted basis from the week before.

The GSEs are making headlines, with Fannie Mae's CEO appearing before Congress to address the entity's possible profitability and Freddie Mac's CEO providing testimony on the controversial executive bonuses within the organization. Both leaders spoke to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform to field questions regarding various aspects of Fannie and Freddie's practices and financial standing. The high-profile hearing follows considerable outcry by lawmakers over $13 million in bonuses for 10 senior-level executives.

The same day that lawmakers deluged the GSEs and their regulator with criticism, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac finally released guidelines Tuesday for lenders and servicers about modifications to the Home Affordable Refinance Program. The Obama administration ended weeks of speculation when it announced the modifications ├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├óÔé¼┼ô specific to HARP 2.0, as dubbed by the media ├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├óÔé¼┼ô in October. New guidelines effectively took lenders and servicers off the hook by nixing their legal culpability for original loans before homeowners refinance with the GSEs.