Wed, Apr 8 2015, 3:50 PM
If data from Fannie Mae's March National Housing Survey is
any indication, consumers seem to have grown a bit uneasy as many of the positive
respo...
Wed, Mar 18 2015, 10:40 AM
What is the Willis Tower? I don't know, but the $1.3 billion Sears Tower , complete with a $775 million loan, was sold to Blackstone.
The WSJ repor...
Tue, Mar 10 2015, 2:03 PM
The percentage of consumers believing the economy is on the right track finally crossed paths with those who say the economy is on the wrong track i...
Thu, Mar 5 2015, 4:38 PM
In a speech on Thursday the director of the Federal Housing
Finance Agency (FHFA) emphasized one of the three familiar goals of his agency's
2015 ...
Wed, Feb 25 2015, 9:27 AM
Although
the focus of this 6-day a week commentary is residential, it is good to
have an awareness of commercial lending - especially as it compet...
Fri, Feb 20 2015, 1:33 PM
Like Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae has
also reported a profitable fourth quarter of 2014 and a profitable year. The company had both net and comprehensive...
Thu, Jan 29 2015, 10:45 AM
"Rob, I just heard of a major lender offering an internal incentive for originating FHA streamline refinances .
The bonus is 100 bps on top of thei...
Fri, Jan 9 2015, 2:39 PM
Even though consumers are becoming increasingly optimistic about
the economy and comfortable that it is heading in the right direction, results
of t...
Thu, Jan 8 2015, 1:14 PM
Once again, bond markets find themselves in weaker territory simply due to the corrective forces that follow strong rallies, and once again, resilient...
Fri, Jan 2 2015, 10:27 AM
The U.S. Census Bureau projected the United States population to be 320.1 million as of yesterday.
(And no, not all of them contribute to NAR.) Th...
Tue, Dec 23 2014, 10:34 AM
Let's talk about the $26 billion in equity gain
in Colorado in 2014 - Rocky Mountain High! What are not gaining are the
stock prices of non-ban...
Wed, Dec 17 2014, 10:53 AM
For
folks who like paper and documentation, in 2015 nearby Iowa (I am in
Kansas for a few days) will become the first state to offer an official
...
Fri, Nov 21 2014, 10:44 AM
In New York, the New York Mortgage Bankers Association's website
is now live. The group is functioning and has already had meetings with
DFS, so...
Wed, Nov 19 2014, 10:56 AM
Seattle's Zillow has published good news for the real estate industry . Its report
regarding hidden households and future housing activity indica...
Mon, Nov 10 2014, 2:11 PM
Consumer attitudes toward housing and the
economy in general continued the slow improvement that has become the norm according
to results from the...
Thu, Nov 6 2014, 1:43 PM
Both Freddie Mac
and Fannie Mae released third quarter financial results on Thursday. The government sponsored enterprises (GSEs)
each reported tha...
Fri, Oct 24 2014, 10:59 AM
Fannie Mae said on Thursday that real economic
growth in the last two quarters of 2014 appear poised to exceed 3.0 percent ,
providing a solid basi...
Tue, Oct 7 2014, 2:20 PM
Fannie Mae said its September National
Housing Survey noted a rebound in consumer housing optimism after a dip was
recorded in August. Most indic...
Wed, Oct 1 2014, 10:58 AM
A lawsuit challenging the manner in
which profits from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (the GSEs) have been allocated to
the U.S. Treasury was dismisse...
Tue, Sep 23 2014, 12:58 PM
Fannie
Mae's economists are painting a much improved picture for the economy in the
coming months with encouraging news in the area of business in...
Fri, Aug 29 2014, 10:11 AM
Cleverness
is alive and well in lending, and the "free Russian cat with your loan
funding" story yesterday brought a few e-mails. Chris L. contrib...
Tue, Aug 12 2014, 4:44 PM
The Federal Housing Finance Agency
(FHFA) moved another step closer on Tuesday to its strategic goal of issuing a
single mortgage-backed security...
Fri, Aug 8 2014, 3:08 PM
The gap between Americans who think it
is a good time to buy a house and those who feel it is a good time to sell
narrowed by six percentage points ...
Mon, Aug 4 2014, 10:44 AM
Are you an appraiser ? Maybe you should be honored: there are fewer and fewer of you every year, and your ranks are down to 80,500 nationwide . Ther...
Wed, Jul 30 2014, 10:18 AM
There
are plenty of ways to divvy up people (those who like soggy cereal,
those that don't, those that can form their tongue into an "o", and
th...
Wed, Jul 23 2014, 12:58 PM
The theme for the economy and the
housing market's in 2014 has been set for months; the economy will
continue to slowly strengthen; the modest reco...
Tue, Jul 1 2014, 10:47 AM
Yes, smaller lenders sue each other. The latest verdict announced was a decision between Stearns and Prospect Mortgage . And we have the latest set...
Mon, Jun 23 2014, 3:24 PM
Almost one year ago Mark Palim, Fannie
Mae's Vice President of Applied Economic and Housing Research, analyzed what impact rising
rates might hav...
Thu, Jun 19 2014, 10:26 AM
"My
friend has a lifesaving tool in her car which is designed to cut
through a seat belt if she gets trapped. She keeps it in the car trunk."
So...
Thu, May 29 2014, 1:31 PM
Real estate agents will soon be able
to negotiate terms of a short sale directly with Fannie Mae rather than
communicating through servicers. Thi...
Tue, May 13 2014, 1:00 PM
The Federal Housing Finance Agency
(FHFA) will not use its conservatorship authority to reduce current conforming
loan limits. FHFA Director Melv...
Thu, Apr 24 2014, 10:18 AM
It
is "bring your kid to work" day. Some kids are fascinated with how much
others make. They grow up to be underwriters . Others are fascinated
...
Mon, Apr 7 2014, 1:30 PM
Fannie Mae sees results from its most recent National
Housing Survey (NHS) as possibly portending a pickup in home buying and selling
activity this ...
Thu, Mar 27 2014, 9:50 AM
Bank of America bought Countrywide and Merrill Lynch in 2008 and 2009 respectively. How is that investment paying off? Well, it just cost BofA anoth...
Thu, Mar 27 2014, 4:53 PM
Strong response to an earlier limited incentive offer for home buyers has prompted the Fannie Mae HomePath® Program to briefly extend the offer's de...
Tue, Mar 25 2014, 9:46 AM
The current plan to wind down Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would result in lower housing prices for everyone. It would harm the United Stat...
Tue, Mar 18 2014, 10:27 AM
What
is the MBA applications number going to tell us tomorrow? My bet, given
stories from lock desks around the nation, is that we'll see an
imp...
Wed, Mar 12 2014, 10:37 AM
Problems can be created by differences in education,
nationality, or age. For example, the ICBA reports 90% of community
bankers say their averag...
Mon, Mar 10 2014, 11:24 AM
Americans
expectations regarding home prices ticked up decisively in February, both in
terms of anticipating continued price increases and in the si...
Mon, Mar 10 2014, 10:21 AM
Every lender & servicer, and therefore borrower, is influenced by the price of servicing .
And in recent months we have all seen large blocks of se...
Mon, Feb 24 2014, 10:32 AM
Loans
have become harder to do, and underwriters that I have spoken to keep
telling me that every deal is different. How many scenarios are ther...
Fri, Feb 21 2014, 10:52 AM
The fourth
quarter of 2013 was its eighth consecutive profitable quarter Fannie Mae said
today and the company posted net income for the entire year...
Fri, Feb 21 2014, 10:44 AM
Tongues are wagging
about Wells Fargo' s extending credit to borrowers with lower credit
scores (600 FICOs) and thus, on the surface, perceive hi...
Thu, Feb 13 2014, 1:48 PM
Starting tomorrow Fannie Mae will offer some homebuyers
a special incentive to purchase through its HomePath program which the company
uses to mar...
Tue, Feb 11 2014, 10:29 AM
Fannie Mae said today that an
improvement in American's attitudes about the ease of getting a mortgage may
offset a declining perception about home ...
Fri, Feb 7 2014, 11:54 AM
Nearly half of the homeowners who could refinance
their homes have not done so despite the prolonged availability of record low
mortgage interest ra...
Tue, Jan 28 2014, 9:37 AM
Just when we think everything is quiet on the appraisal front, Kate Berry with American Banker writes that Fannie Mae has created a blacklist for app...
Wed, Jan 22 2014, 5:21 PM
A Treasury Department official said
today that despite arguments that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (the GSEs) are
financially flush and that, with the...
Fri, Jan 17 2014, 10:42 AM
"The
check's in the mail!" Hah! The Fed reports the number of checks paid
has declined from close to $50B in the 1990s to about $20B. With tax...
Fri, Jan 10 2014, 1:05 PM
A recent article for Fannie Mae's Housing Industry Forum makes the point
that when it comes to the new servicing rules which go into effect today,
...
