Tag Archives: Fannie Mae

HSBC Holdings is the latest institution to make good with the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) after the firm's North American arm agreed Friday to pay hundreds of millions to settle claims revolving around faulty mortgage-backed securities (MBS) sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the years before the crash.

A bill proposed to dissolve the GSEs and replace them with a limited government backstop could cut direct spending by $60 billion over the next 10 years, according to an estimate from the Congressional Budget Office. Under S. 1217, the new system of guaranteeing mortgage-backed securities (MBS) would mean less risk for the government, therefore costing the government less money.

Despite economic strides made in the last few months, Fannie Mae's latest survey found Americans' outlook toward housing deteriorated again in August, "[suggesting] that housing activity may resume its modest recovery in 2015 after some pullback last year," analysts said. "The August National Housing Survey results lend support to our forecast that 2015 will likely not be a breakout year for housing," said Doug Duncan, SVP and chief economist at Fannie Mae.

Following the Federal Housing Finance Agency's (FHFA's) recent request for input on its proposal for a single security for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the Urban Institute expressed support for the idea but concern that FHFA may be unnecessarily slow in implementing such a plan.

In a note sent earlier this week, equity research analyst Richard Bove at Rafferty Capital Markets warned clients of a potential mortgage crisis in the making, according to a report from CNBC. With the Federal Reserve on track to end its monthly bond purchases, Bove cautions that the loss of one of the tools used to help lift housing out of its post-recession rut could hurt the market, especially as interest rates start to tick back up.

A pickup in new business failed to provide positive growth for Fannie Mae's book of business in July, resulting in another month of contraction. The company reported -0.6 percent annualized growth in its book in July, marking the eighth straight month of declines. While still negative, July's negative growth rate was the lowest so far this year, bringing the year-to-date average to -2.0 percent.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) proposed last week a rule to establish new housing goals for 2015 through 2017 for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. For single-family housing goals for 2015 through 2017, FHFA requests comment on three alternative approaches regarding prospective benchmarks for low and very low-income families.

Lawyers for Bank of America have filed to overturn a jury verdict last year that held the bank liable for fraud over faulty mortgage-backed securities sold by its Countrywide unit. In their motion, BofA's lawyers argue the government failed to prove the loans involved in the case were advertised as being higher quality than they were.

The balance of power in the housing market is continuing its tilt back to buyers—and that could spell a surge in home sales in the coming months. In the brokerage's latest Real-Time Housing Market Tracker, Redfin Chief Economist Nela Richardson notes two ongoing trends indicating a shift to a more balanced market as the nation heads into fall.

A report filed last week by the Office of Inspector General (OIG) of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) states that Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae ignored "red flags" with regards to a mortgage fraud scheme perpetrated by lenders Taylor, Bean & Whitaker and Colonial Bank. In addition to the losses absorbed by Freddie Mac (almost $2 billion) and Ginnie Mae (almost $1 billion), private banks that conducted business with Taylor Bean lost billions.