Government

According to a statement released by Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, the companies are in the process of developing the Uniform Appraisal Dataset (UAD) to improve the quality and consistency of appraisal data on loans delivered to the GSEs. Business and technical details of the UAD, implementation dates for the Uniform Collateral Data Portal (UCDP), and use of the UAD and UCDP are expected to be released later this year. Implementations will occur in 2011.

Banks that sold bad mortgages to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have a contractual obligation to buy the loans back, according to their regulator. But many of the nation's largest institutions aren't living up to their end of that commitment. The director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency says that as of the end of the second quarter, Fannie Mae had $4.7 billion in outstanding repurchase requests, and Freddie Mac had $6.4 billion -- more than a third of which have been outstanding for more than 90 days.

With the foreclosure crisis still raging, the nation's largest mortgage financier has amassed a hefty portfolio of repossessed homes. Fannie Mae took back 68,838 foreclosed properties in the second quarter alone. In the first quarter of this year, the company added 61,929 new REOs to its inventory. In an effort to increase sales of its foreclosed inventory and get these properties off its books, Fannie Mae said Thursday that it is offering additional incentives to both buyers and sellers of its REO homes.

The Treasury issued a new directive of the Making Home Affordable (MHA) program this week. Also known as the Dodd-Frank Certification Requirement, it provides guidance on borrower certification for non-GSE loans participating in the program. The new requirement states that borrowers are not eligible to receive assistance through MHA if they have been convicted of felony larceny, theft, fraud, or forgery; money laundering; or tax evasion in connection with a mortgage or real estate transaction within the last 10 years.

Assistant Treasury Secretary Herbert M. Allison said Wednesday that he will be stepping down from his post at the end of September. Allison was responsible for overseeing the administration's $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). The Treasury's Office of Homeownership Preservation also fell under his jurisdiction. The former Fannie Mae CEO has played an integral role in the development and management of the Obama administration's housing and foreclosure prevention programs.

The analysts at Moody's are downbeat in their outlook for both the U.S. economy and the housing market. They warn that the there's a stronger chance the country will slide back into a recession, and they are forecasting a longer and deeper housing correction. Because of weak housing demand, soft job creation, and the slow speed at which the industry is working through distressed mortgages, Moody's says recovery is already back-sliding into a double-dip. The agency expects house prices to fall until the third quarter of next year.

A coalition of community groups called on the Federal Reserve to overhaul a 35-year old law that requires lenders to report vital information on their mortgage lending practices. At a Federal Reserve Board hearing held last week in Chicago, advocates urged the Fed to increase the scope of information mortgage lenders must report and to use the data to crack down on lenders that engage in the sorts of discriminatory and abusive lending practices that led to the current foreclosure crisis and financial meltdown.

Fannie Mae announced Monday that more than 29,000 owner occupants have purchased Fannie-owned REO homes over the last year through the GSE's First Look initiative. Fannie Mae also worked with nearly 800 public entities under HUD's Neighborhood Stabilization Program, enabling state and local governments and nonprofit groups to purchase nearly 5,000 foreclosure properties from the GSE's portfolio. Fannie says homebuyers who intend to occupy a home merit priority consideration in its REO sales process.

Six community-based lenders found regulators at their doors Friday evening, preparing to shut down their operations - three in Georgia, and one each in Ohio, New Jersey, and Wisconsin. The failures are expected to cost the FDIC some $225 million. This latest round of closings pushes the FDIC's failed-bank tally for the year to 125. There were 140 bank closings in all of 2009. In 2008, there were 25. The FDIC recently reported that the names on its so-called ""Problem List"" of banks climbed to 829 at the end of the second quarter of this year.

Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray's lawsuit against Barclays Capital Real Estate, dba HomEq Servicing, just took a legal step forward with a recent decision by a state court. This week, a Montgomery County judge overruled the defendant's motion to dismiss, clearing the way for Cordray's case to move forward, and the attorney general says, setting the stage for servicers to be held legally responsible for their actions in the aftermath of the foreclosure crisis.