Daily Dose

The news was all good on the delinquency front for October 2015 as all related metrics continued steep declines.

Delinquency trends for housing were positive, with foreclosures hitting a new low in the 17 years the New York Fed has been reporting the data.

Is the FHFA's conservatorship of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac weighing down homeownership?

The riskiness of agency purchase loans has increased year-over-year every month since January 2014. What is driving the constant rise in risk?

Borrowers who are owed relief funds under the Independent Foreclosure Review may lose that money if they do not meet the Fed's deadline for requesting a replacement check.

Mel Watt, an Obama appointee who could now be at odds with the Obama Administration if the Vitter-Warren bill gets signed by the President, said in a statement in July that the purpose of the pay raises was to "promote CEO retention, allow reliable succession planning, and ensure the continuity, efficiency and stability" at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Menendez, Ranking Member of the Senate Subcommittee on Housing, Transportation, and Community Development, cited preliminary findings in the FHFA’s annual housing report. The Senator noted that Freddie Mac had failed to meet its single-family low- and very low-income home purchase goals last year and asked Watt what the agency is going to do to make corrections in these two areas.

At their peak in January 2011, cash sales accounted for nearly half of all residential home sales in the United States (46.5 percent). Since then, that percentage has steadily declined; in August 2015, it was reported at 31.7 percent, less than one-third of all home sales—a decline of more than 3 percentage points from August 2014, when it was 34.9 percent.

“Despite mixed housing and mortgage market data, our forecast for housing activity is little changed over the past several months,” Duncan said. “The supply of existing homes remains lean amid slowing new single-family construction, putting significant upward pressure on home prices. While this helps boost home equity, it hurts affordability, especially for potential first-time homebuyers."

The amendment to H.R. 2577, known as the Jumpstart GSE Reform Act, was introduced by Corker, Warner, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts), and Senator David Vitter (R-Louisiana) in September and offered on Thursday by Corker and Warner as an amendment to H.R. 2577. The Jumpstart GSE Reform Act prohibits the sale of Treasury-owned preferred shares in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac without approval from Congress, and also prohibits increases in guarantee fees charged by the GSEs from offsetting non-housing related government spending.