Fannie Mae announced on Wednesday the pricing of the latest risk-sharing transaction under the Connecticut Avenue Securities (CAS) Series at $1.45 billion. The latest transaction is Fannie Mae’s ninth under the CAS Series and first CAS transaction structured for an actual loss framework.

The increase in net income during Q3 made it a positive quarter for the bank despite a lawsuit filed by the FDIC in August accusing the bank of breaching its duties as a bond trustee for $2 billion in residential mortgage-backed securities and despite having their own lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase over toxic RMBS dismissed.

Ask the Economist is an ongoing series in which DS News talks with an economist about the most pressing issues facing the nation's housing industry and the economy. This installment features Ataman Ozyildirim, Economist and Director, Business Cycles and Growth Research at The Conference Board.

NCUA sued Wachovia, which was acquired by Wells Fargo in 2008, in 2011. The Association filed suit against Barclays, the U.S. subsidiary of the British financial services firm, in 2012. Once the settlements are completed, NCUA will dismiss pending suits against both firms in federal district courts in California, New York and Kansas. As part of the settlement, neither Wachovia nor Barclays do not admit any fault.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has advanced three specific legislative proposals aimed at eliminating regulatory burden on community banks and financial institutions, according to an address from Comptroller of the Currency Thomas J. Curry at the Interagency Outreach Meeting on The Economic Growth and Regulatory Paperwork Reduction Act (EGRPA) in Chicago this week.

The default rates for both first mortgages and second mortgages dropped from August to September, fueling the decline in the composite index. The first mortgage default rate fell by eight basis points down to 0.76 percent and the second mortgage default rate dropped by 10 basis points down to 0.47 percent in September. Both rates are close to the historic lows for the first and second mortgage default rates of 0.74 percent and 0.42 percent, respectively, both reached in May 2015.

A combination of a lack of housing inventory, especially discounted and distressed, and a surge in demand for rental housing has caused more investors to turn to the build to rent strategy—that is, building a single-family home with the specific intent of renting it rather than sell it to an owner occupant.

In an editorial titled “How Not to Fix Fannie and Freddie,” Antonio Weiss, Counselor to the Treasury Secretary, called the push to recapitalize the GSEs and release them from the FHFA’s conservatorship “misguided.” Weiss claims that such a “recap and release” proposal, if executed, could raise the cost of mortgages and potentially expose American taxpayers to another bailout.

Morgan Stanley reported net revenues of $7.8 billion for the quarter ending September 30, 2015, compared to net revenues of $8.9 billion from the same reporting period a year earlier. Net income applicable to Morgan Stanley for Q3 was also down from a year ago, from $1.7 billion at the end of Q3 2014 ($0.83 per diluted share) to $1.0 billion at the end of Q3 2015 ($0.48 per diluted share).

Irvine, California-based online real estate marketplace Auction.com has announced the acquisition of online real estate marketplace Allre and the hiring of Allre’s founder, Kathy Dryden, as SVP of product strategy.