Mon, Jul 25 2016, 9:47 AM
Every day we have news coming out of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Some of the news is attempts at changing the structure of the two – being under gover...
Tue, Jul 12 2016, 11:54 AM
Lou Holtz observed, "Never tell your problems to anyone....80% don't care and the other 20% are glad you have them." People who don’t understand econo...
Tue, Jul 12 2016, 1:10 PM
The Brexit decision continues to reverberate and Freddie Mac, in its current issue of Outlook sees it as both a plus and a minus for the U.S., and n...
Thu, Jul 7 2016, 4:35 PM
The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) has released an update on the progress made toward the Single Security that is expected to replace those cur...
Fri, Jul 1 2016, 11:24 AM
The Fourth of July is Monday...the date of the Declaration of Independence (quibble all you want about late signers); the next commentary will be Tues...
Wed, Jun 29 2016, 2:04 PM
Freddie Mac says that the housing market as a whole in the U.S. is on the outer range of its historic benchmark level of housing activity. The spri...
Mon, Jun 27 2016, 10:12 AM
Everyone is talking about the future of the European Union. Tad Dahlke sends, “Brexit to be followed by Grexit, Departugal, Italeave, Fruckoff, Czech...
Wed, Jun 8 2016, 9:13 AM
In reviewing Fannie MORA and Freddie CORE reviews it's clear that seller/servicers continue to struggle with establishing and implementing an internal...
Thu, May 26 2016, 10:13 AM
The nation's housing market continues to improve and the spring home buying season appears to be off to a strong start according to a Freddie Mac re...
Mon, May 23 2016, 9:50 AM
My memory's not as sharp as it used to be. Also, my memory's not as sharp as it used to be. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports nearly 20% of Ameri...
Wed, May 18 2016, 4:02 PM
As Fannie Mae did earlier in its May Economic Summary, Freddie Mac today downgraded its outlook for economic growth for the remainder of 2016. And ...
Thu, May 5 2016, 9:45 AM
May is Older Americans Month. Underwriters probably know that about 21% of the labor force is comprised of men 65 and older and only 13.5% of women in...
Wed, May 4 2016, 9:11 AM
Freddie Mac said today that the company had a net loss in the first quarter of 2016, the first time in four years that it has failed to show a pro...
Fri, Apr 1 2016, 4:59 PM
Freddie Mac predicted in its monthly Outlook on Thursday that 2016 might be the best year for housing in a decade with most sectors, sales, constr...
Fri, Mar 11 2016, 9:48 AM
Regarding the darned time change Sunday, from Georgia Jim Bedsole writes, “Which is why I continue to advocate that, if we are going to be forced to ‘...
Wed, Feb 24 2016, 10:44 AM
Here's your IT lesson for the day. The NSA's Skynet program utilizes metadata to identify suspected terrorists. The system uses mass surveillance of...
Thu, Feb 18 2016, 10:43 AM
Freddie Mac is announcing changes to its Single-Family Seller/Servicer Guide which the company says will provide expanded homeownership opportuniti...
Wed, Feb 3 2016, 9:08 AM
I
spent some time at the Texas Mortgage Banker's event earlier this week
in Houston, and some of the discussion revolved around another refi
bo...
Wed, Feb 3 2016, 6:24 PM
Freddie Mac's economists are expressing concerns about what
they see as economic headwinds revealed by some recently released
indicators. In thei...
Wed, Jan 6 2016, 10:15 AM
The Wall Street Journal reports banks are beefing up cybersecurity defenses
by taking actions that include banning employees from using USB drives...
Tue, Jan 5 2016, 11:43 AM
Freddie Mac is dismissing concerns of some analysts that the
change in the Federal Reserve's monetary policy may bode ill for the housing
industry. ...
Fri, Nov 27 2015, 11:28 AM
There
are 50 states in the U.S., and 3007 counties in those states. (The
numbers of counties per state ranges from the 3 in Delaware to 254 in
T...
Tue, Nov 24 2015, 10:45 AM
Nonbank online lender CashCall
has paid $2 million in restitution and fines to settle California state
allegations that the company duped consum...
Mon, Nov 9 2015, 2:35 PM
Freddie Mac is counting on an approach to delinquent borrowers
it developed during the foreclosure crisis to forestall any new problems some
of thos...
Wed, Nov 4 2015, 9:06 AM
No
sooner does the commentary (once again) mention cyberattacks than the
FFIEC comes out with a bulletin yesterday on the escalating number of ...
Thu, Oct 22 2015, 10:46 AM
If
anyone out there wants to be buy a big office building, Fannie has one:
the company is preparing to move to its new HQ downtown and is selling...
Thu, Oct 22 2015, 2:31 PM
In the midst of what has been a rather interesting several
weeks for housing finance reform Donald H. Layton published a column in Freddie
Mac's Ex...
Thu, Oct 8 2015, 10:14 AM
Who
says that financial reporters don't have a sense of humor? I caught
this recent headline about a story on Alcoa Aluminum splitting into
mini...
Wed, Oct 7 2015, 9:43 AM
How
long has your staff been on their jobs? The Fed has kept short term
rates unchanged for 6 years and 9 months at this point. Does your senior
...
Wed, Sep 23 2015, 10:48 AM
How bad is the housing market in San Francisco, California? Well, here's a "beauty" that is on the market for $350,000 . Run that one by any investor...
Wed, Sep 23 2015, 2:26 PM
Twenty-nine states and the District of
Columbia have now moved within their own range of stable housing activity
according to Freddie Mac's Multi-...
Thu, Sep 17 2015, 10:40 AM
Freddie
Mae has unveiled another round of changes to its Single-Family
Seller/Servicer Guide. There are more
than a half dozen changes effecting m...
Thu, Sep 3 2015, 4:00 PM
Freddie Mac's long-time chief economist Frank Nothaft
departed some months ago to take the same role at CoreLogic and that vacancy at
the mortgage c...
Thu, Jul 23 2015, 9:36 AM
It is different this time.
At least that's the contention of the writers of this month's Economic
and Housing Outlook regarding new low downpayment...
Thu, Jul 16 2015, 10:16 AM
A number of selling updates to Freddie Mac's
Single-Family Seller/Servicer Guide are slated to go into effect over the next
several months. The lar...
Tue, Jul 14 2015, 10:28 AM
June marked the beginning of hurricane season , as the North Atlantic hurricane season began on June 1 st and ends November 30 th .
The last time ...
Wed, Jul 8 2015, 4:08 PM
Another milestone was reached on Wednesday as the government
sponsored enterprises (GSEs) and their conservator the Federal Housing Finance
Agency m...
Tue, Jul 7 2015, 12:23 PM
Are you in debt? You're not alone - and check out this United States debt clock - enough to make your stomach turn over.
Back in February the Col...
Wed, Jun 24 2015, 1:37 PM
Freddie Mac said on Wednesday that it
Multi-Indicator Market Index (MiMi) shows that the U.S. housing market is
continuing to stabilize and those ...
Mon, May 4 2015, 9:53 AM
By
now the remains of the pizza lunches for everyone working OT to deliver
a successful April have been cleared away, and lenders are optimistic
...
Thu, Apr 23 2015, 10:20 AM
Freddie Mac's Multi-Indicator Market Index (MiMi) for
February shows that the U.S. housing market continues to stabilize and has
recovered from a ...
Fri, Apr 10 2015, 10:36 AM
In its Economic and Housing Outlook
for April Freddie Mac's economists point out that the spring homebuying season has
become familiar territory. ...
Wed, Mar 25 2015, 10:02 AM
Don't
think the gap between the haves and have-nots is widening? USA Today
reports the world's richest 1% of people control over 50% of total
gl...
Wed, Mar 25 2015, 2:45 PM
Freddie Mac said today that housing
market stability "stumbled a bit" due to the cold winter weather and softening
economic growth. The company's...
Thu, Mar 19 2015, 2:18 PM
In
2013 Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (the GSEs) both essentially bankrupt five years
earlier, posted huge profits. For Fannie
Mae it was $84 billi...
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...
Thu, Mar 12 2015, 3:16 PM
Freddie Mac's economists restated their February forecast in
their Economic and Housing Outlook just
released for March, that 2015 could be the b...
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, 1:20 PM
Freddie Mac said today that full-year net income and
comprehensive income, $7.7 billion and 9.4 billion respectively, made 2014 the
company's third ...
