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Edward J. DeMarco, Acting Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) has responded to an announcement from the House Financial Services Committee regarding HR 1221, The Equity in Government Compensation Act of 2011 . The bill would strip compensation packages of senior executives at Freddie...
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The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) is requesting public comment on two alternative mortgage servicing compensation structures . The proposed structures are the result of work done under a Joint Initiative involving Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae (the GSEs), FHFA, HUD, FHA, and Ginnie Mae. FHFA's stated...
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Four out of five of the major groups that invest in commercial/multifamily mortgages saw delinquency rates fall during the second quarter of 2011. The fifth group, loans held in commercial mortgage backed securities (CMBS) continued to deteriorate, but at a more moderate pace. The delinquency data were...
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The House Subcommittee on Capital Markets and Government Sponsored Enterprises took its microphones to New York City on Wednesday for a field hearing on " Facilitating Continued Investor Demand in the U.S. Mortgage Market without a Government Guarantee ." The representatives heard testimony from four...
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The Federal Housing Finance Agency ( FHFA ), conservator for Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae (the Enterprises) said on Thursday that, while modifications of loans tied to the Enterprises declined in the second quarter of 2011, those modifications continue to be robust . Voluntary home forfeiture actions,...
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The New York Times is reporting that the government is seriously contemplating a broad-based refinancing of mortgages guaranteed by the two GSEs , Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, in an effort to reduce payments by those borrowers who currently cannot refinance either due to negative equity in their homes...
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Have a bright idea about how the government can best liquidate the current huge inventory of owned real estate (REO) currently held by FHA, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac? Here is your chance to be heard. The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), the conservator of the two government sponsored enterprises...
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The Chairman of the Federal Reserve today told Congress in his Semiannual Monetary Policy Review that "Households report that they have little confidence in the durability of the recovery and about their own income prospects. Moreover, the ongoing weakness in home values is holding down household wealth...
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[I am away from the computer on a daily basis, and my access to e-mail is sporadic and not timely. In my place are daily commentaries from a series of very knowledgeable mortgage industry people with different backgrounds, and they have been given very little direction about what to write about - the...
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The House Subcommittee on Capital Markets and Government Sponsored Enterprises has approved eight bills to end what it calls the bailout of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, the two government sponsored enterprises (GSEs) which have been in government conservatorship since August 2008. Seven of those bills...
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Realtors® attending the National Association of Realtors (NAR) mid-year legislative meetings and trade expo in Washington heard a panel of housing experts lay out the several solutions for housing finance reform. The six panelists discussing Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac: Obama Options and Beyond...
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Yesterday Freddie Mac announced net income of $676 million for the quarter ended March 31, 2011, compared to a net loss of $113 million for the quarter ended December 31, 2010. The company release states Freddie had a positive net worth of $1.2 billion on March 31, 2011. As a result, no additional funding...
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The proposed regulations governing the Qualified Residential Mortgage (QRM) exemption from risk retention rules constitute a "devastating, unnecessary and very expensive wrench (thrown) into the American dream" according to a white paper released Wednesday by a consortium of housing industry groups....
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Reform of the nation's housing system is picking up steam, with one regulatory agency set to vote on risk retention exemptions on Tuesday, multiple hearings about the future face of housing underway on Capitol Hill, and the administration on record with its broad outline for change. But, with everything...
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Headline news and crisis scenarios have been the market's primary directional motivation for most of March. With exception to the Fed's proclamation that our economic recovery may be on "firmer footing", negative events have dominated the news flow. Bond yields and mortgage rates have benefited from...