The central goal of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) in managing its conservatorship of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae is and conserving the assets of the corporations by minimizing their credit losses from delinquent mortgages. This goal and others were outlined in a letter earlier this month from...
I think all of us would agree that the Housing Finance System in this country is broken. The ability for the once powerful secondary marketing vehicles to provide liquidity to the housing industry is at risk. Private securitization has been out of business for over two years, the agency markets required...
Home Today's Headlines ATW Forums Q&A Mortgage Rates Top Stories Don't Expect the GSEs to Go Away Anytime Soon GNMA paper is already explicitly guaranteed, expect GNMA and the FHA to continue to be a crutch (responsibly). In terms of GSE paper, while I still believe... - MND NewsWire Pay Option ARM...
Over the holidays the US Treasury issued an update on the status of government support for housing programs. Here is a quote from the release : "Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury provided an update on initiatives established under the Housing and Economic Recovery Act (HERA) of 2008, which...
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...
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...
Outgoing Treasury Secretary Paulson has suggested that Congress should replace Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac with one or two private-sector entities. Those entities would purchase and securitize mortgages with a credit guarantee backed by the federal government, and would not have investment portfolios...
The best option for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac may be to convert them into public, utility-like organizations that would not hold any investment portfolio, U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said on Wednesday. Speaking at the Economic Club of Washington, Paulson said returning Fannie Mae and Freddie...
The government announced Tuesday it will spend $600 billion to take on the obligations of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae in order to reduce borrowing costs for the government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs). Agency debt has always carried an implicit government guarantee but took on an explicit...
Four U.S. Senators have asked the conservators of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae to freeze foreclosures on mortgages held by the companies for 90 days and to take immediate steps to assist homeowners by modifying delinquent loans. Senators Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Bob Casey (D-PA), Robert Menendez (D-NJ), and...