Daily Dose

Obama Administration officials such as Treasury Secretary Jack Lew have warned in the last month that such a “recap and release” program for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would put the GSEs at risk of another bailout; however, the GSEs’ Q3 earnings reports showed a $475 million net loss for Freddie Mac and a decline of more than 50 percent in Fannie Mae’s quarterly net income (from $4.6 billion in Q2 down to $2 billion in Q3), prompting their boss, FHFA Director Mel Watt, to declare that they may need a bailout anyway.

During the debate, Florida Senator and GOP presidential hopeful Marco Rubio called Dodd-Frank an “outrage” that codified too big to fail instead of ending it as it set out to do, or claims to have done. Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, now competing for the GOP presidential nomination, criticized the “vast overreach” of Dodd-Frank during Tuesday’s debate.

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 Nela Richardson, Chief Economist with Redfin.

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 Curt Long, Chief Economist with the National Association of Federal Credit Unions (NAFCU).

The investigation conducted by the two lawmakers found that repealing Section 716 of Dodd-Frank allows banks to keep nearly $10 trillion in swaps trades on the books that would be “pushed out” to entities that are not insured with taxpayer funds, if not for the Dodd-Frank rollback. Section 716 was intended to prevent taxpayer bailouts of federally-insured banks with risky swap holdings.

The data, which examined 55 of the largest metro areas across the country to determine the best markets for single-family home investors looking at median price, average gross rental yields, year-over-year job growth, and home affordability, showed that the top investment market is Charlotte, North Carolina due to its strong job growth.

Fannie Mae announced the winners in its third NPL sale on Tuesday, and on Monday Freddie Mac announced its eighth NPL transaction of 2015. Both transactions total approximately $1.2 billion in unpaid principal balance (UPB).

The number of completed foreclosures surged from 37,000 in August up to 55,000 in September, an increase of 49.5 percent, largely due to an annual public auctioning of thousands of tax-foreclosed properties in Wayne County, Michigan, where Detroit is the county seat, according to CoreLogic. By comparison, foreclosure completions averaged about 21,000 per month in the pre-recession years from 2000 to 2006.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is defending itself against a $109 million penalty the Bureau handed down to PHH Corp. for allegedly accepting kickbacks from mortgage insurers.

According to similar releases from the GSEs, starting on November 13, 2015, Fannie Mae will lower its standard modification interest rate from 4 percent to 3.875 percent. Meanwhile, Freddie Mac will lower its standard modification interest rate by the same amount beginning on November 5, 2015.