Tag Archives: Fannie Mae

The results of Fannie Mae's April National Housing Survey show 42 percent of Americans believe now is a good time to sell a home. This is the third straight month that the percentage of respondents saying it’s a good time to sell has increased, bringing that percentage to an all-time survey high. Fannie is taking it as a good sign that buying activity will increase in the coming months, as potential buyers may look to shed their homes in order to buy new ones.

Per a settlement announced with the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), First Horizon National Corporation has agreed to pay a combined $110 million to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to resolve alleged violations of securities laws connected to private-label securities purchased by the GSEs from 2005–2007. The settlement is the 14th of its kind, bringing the agency closer to closing the book on 18 suits filed in 2011.

Fannie Mae’s book of business declined for the first three months of this year, ending the first quarter with a monthly compound annualized rate of -1.8 percent. Over the first quarter, the GSE’s book of business declined at a compound annualized rate of 2.2 percent. Fannie’s gross mortgage portfolio has also been on the decline over the first three months of this year, though at a much slower rate in March than in the first two months of the year.

Worst-case scenario: In the event of repeat of the 2008 economic downturn, the federal government’s main mortgage buyers, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac may need another $190 billion bailout to keep them solvent.

The American Enterprise Institute’s (AEI) International Center on Housing Risk released this week its latest National Mortgage Risk Index (NMRI), a measure of likely loan default rates in the event of another economic crisis. For its March data, the group calculated that under stress, 11.5 percent of recent home purchase mortgages would default, just down from 11.6 percent in February.

One way the federal government has accounted for local market differences is through the conforming loan limit: the maximum amount of a home loan that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac can guarantee. However, according to Trulia chief economist Jed Kolko, this current system falls far short of reflecting the actual differences in local home prices and ends up favoring borrowers in lower-cost markets.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) announced last week the latest in a string of settlements with major banks over residential mortgage-backed securities sold to Fannie and Freddie before the economic meltdown. The most recent agreement, struck with Barclays Bank, calls for $280 million in payments to the GSEs.

Even a slight drop in mortgage rates did both bolster February refinances through the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP), the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) reported. Representing 21 percent of all refinances the GSEs completed in February, 26,964 HARP refinances were completed over the month, according to the FHFA's latest Refinance Report.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) released its monthly House Price Index (HPI) for February, revealing continued growth even as winter weather slowed the market. The broad measure of the movement of single-family home prices in this purchase-only index went up by 0.6 percent, according to FHFA, and with the exception of November 2013, marked nearly two straight years of increases.

A weaker-than-expected first quarter has researchers at Fannie Mae amending their forecast for growth in 2014, but they still project acceleration as the year progresses. “The April economic forecast is similar to February and March, where slow growth has been the common denominator, but we expect to see a slight pickup beginning this quarter,” explained Doug Duncan, chief economist at Fannie Mae.