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A man in Detroit is in trouble for swapping food stamps for Viagra. I wonder how it went with his wife. "Did you get the groceries?" "No, but look at this!" The Wall Street Journal reports that, in line with the federal tax credit to purchase fuel efficient cars, the Federal government...
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Not a week goes by that someone doesn't send me a script for a Hollywood movie based on mortgage banking . Usually it is either a) zany comedy starring Ben Stiller as a loan agent who doesn't know that the jumbo market has gone away, with Samuel L. Jackson as an irate borrower, b) an intense...
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Time seems to fly in the mortgage banking business. Here we are, less than a week until the national conference in San Diego. Heck, here we are approaching Halloween! And I know that I am getting old when I wake up with that “morning-after feeling” and I didn't do anything the night before...
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What’s not clear from yesterday's announcement is whether or not Fannie and Freddie are acting strategically or at the behest of Treasury or FHFA. Strategically this makes a lot of sense since the GSE’s have long supported a diverse market of loan sellers: credit unions, community banks...
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Programs are underway on so many fronts to get foreclosures under control that it can be difficult to sort them all out. Early last week the Office of Thrift Supervision and the Office of Comptroller of the Currency issued their second quarter summary of foreclosure avoidance activity among large loan...
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Fannie Mae has a herculean challenge in front of them. The Government Sponsored Enterprise has to manage the legacy issues of loose underwriting and documentation practices of it’s lender/servicer clients and the fallout from those dubious practices, the present day realities of an economic conditions...
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Fannie Mae’s Book of Business grew at a compound annualized rate of 10.1 percent in July and 6.1 percent year to- date. Fannie Mae’s Gross Mortgage Portfolio declined at a compound annualized rate of 18.2 percent in July. The Conventional Single-Family Serious Delinquency Rate rose 26 basis...
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The Federal Reserve today reported on their weekly purchases of agency mortgage-backed securities (MBS). In the five trading days between August 13 and August 19, the Federal Reserve purchased a gross total of $26.640 billion agency MBS. After subtracting sales (providing liquidity/the roll) the Fed's...
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After two weeks of modest increases, mortgage rates drifted down during the week ended August 6 according to results of Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage Market Survey released on Thursday. The 30-year fixed rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 5.22 percent for the week compared to 5.25 percent a week earlier...
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The White House today responded to recent questions raised, among other places, by an article in today's Washington Post, about the potential phasing-out, combination, or replacement of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac by saying that "the story out today is light years ahead of any decision making...
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To help lenders get started with originating Refi Plus™ loans under the manual underwriting option with LTV ratios of 105.01-125 percent, Fannie Mae will make this option available for whole loan committing beginning August 1 -- one month sooner than the September 1 date included in Announcement...
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Fannie Mae, the mortgage goliath taken under government control last September, yesterday announced that its portfolio expanded by an annual rate of 35.1% in May, marking a stark contrast to the 19.2% decline in April. In its summary of monthly highlights, the agency said it provided nearly $72 billion...
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The controversy over retention bonuses continues as the FHFA chief regulator defends the bonuses, with Sen. Charles Grassley, Senate Finance Committee ranking member (R-IA).
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Under the category of "Some People Never Learn," both Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae are reportedly planning on paying huge bonuses to key executives this year in order to retain their services. The Associated Press is reported that Fannie Mae will pay $611,000 to Michael Williams, chief operating...
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Fannie Mae is due to pay retention bonuses of as much as $611K this year, reports CNBC's Brian Shactman.