Tag Archives: FHFA

The nation's economy generally expanded modestly from mid-August until the end of September, the Federal Reserve said in its periodic Beige Book report issued Wednesday. The report, the last Beige Book to be issued prior to Election Day, painted a mixed regional picture, with a leveling off of economic activity in New York and a slowing in the pace of growth in Kansas City. Meanwhile, the remaining 10 federal reserve districts reported that "growth continued at a modest pace."

The Federal Housing Finance Agency released a revised GSE Strategic Plan for the years 2013-2017 Tuesday.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency plans to change the guarantee fees (g-fees) the GSEs charge on single-family mortgages. Starting in 2013, g-fees will be higher in some states than others, according to a notice sent to the Federal Register. As per the current national model, "borrowers in states with lower default-related carrying costs are effectively subsidizing borrowers in states with higher costs," the FHFA stated. The proposed method of adjusting the g-fees considers three foreclosure aspects.

As part of its High Touch Servicing Program, Fannie Mae entered a deal with Bank of America in July 2011 to purchase mortgage servicing rights for about 384,000 high-risk loans the GSE guaranteed. The Federal Housing Finance Agency Office of Inspector General recently reviewed the deal and the program in general. The idea behind Fannie Mae's High Touch Servicing program is to purchase the servicing rights for portfolios of high-risk loans it guarantees and transfer them to specialty servicers to mitigate losses.

On the heels of the Federal Housing Finance Agency├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├óÔÇ×┬ós announcement of its revised representation and warranty guidelines comes news that Freddie Mac will be increasing its repurchase claims in the near future. The revised rep and warranty guidelines were designed to provide more clarity in the market, but in the meantime, the FHFA Office of Inspector General reports Freddie Mac will increase repurchase requests to between $0.8 billion and $1.2 billion this year and between $2.2 billion and $3.4 billion overall.

The housing market is seeing signs of recovery, and this recovery may be bolstered by the new representation and warranty framework the Federal Housing Finance Agency announced Tuesday, according to Fitch. Relying on signing offers and home tours as a future indicator of home sales, Redfin, a technology-driven real estate broker, predicts the market improvement seen this summer will continue into the fall. Offers fell 4 percent in August.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac released new representations and warranty guidelines for lenders Tuesday to clarify lenders├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├óÔÇ×┬ó risk regarding repurchase claims and define steps lenders can take to challenge repurchase claims they feel are without grounds. Under the new guidelines, if a loan is current for 36 consecutive months, lenders ├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├àÔÇ£will be relieved of certain repurchase obligations,├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├é┬Ø according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency, regulator of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Homeowners and officials in held a town meeting Thursday in Akron, Ohio, to discuss the impact of the housing crisis on their communities. The event, called ├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├àÔÇ£#MyHomeMyVote,├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├é┬Ø was designed to put the housing crisis and voters├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├óÔÇ×┬ó concerns at the forefront of the wave of issues surrounding this year├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├óÔÇ×┬ós election season. Attendees used the hash tag to tweet their representatives and other officials with their concerns. Held at the Akron-Summit Public Library and co-hosted by Empowering and Strengthening Ohio├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├óÔÇ×┬ós People (ESOP), among other organizations, #MyHomeMyVote featured speakers such as Senator Sherrod Brown and Rep. Betty Sutton.

On Friday, after years of bills from lawmakers to reform Fannie and Freddie, the Treasury Department unveiled a plan to finally ├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├àÔÇ£wind down├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├é┬Ø the mortgage giants. According to a release, the Treasury Department will end a past ├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├àÔÇ£circular├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├é┬Ø arrangement with Fannie and Freddie that allowed the companies to repay the agency with the very funds it received in the first place. The new agreement requires that Fannie and Freddie divert any new quarterly profits back to Treasury in order to repay taxpayers for their losses.

FHFA issued a notice Wednesday to warn of the controversial use of eminent domain recently proposed in San Bernardino County. California officials are considering the use of eminent domain to seize underwater mortgages. The mortgages would be taken at fair market value, and then restructured into new loans with terms reflecting the current market. Chicago and Berkeley are also exploring the proposed use of eminent domain. FHFA said that in relation to the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the use of an eminent domain program could result in a cost to taxpayers.