News

Freddie Mac released the results of its weekly Primary Mortgage Market Survey (PMMS) on Thursday. For the week ending April 23, 2009, Freddie’s study shows that long-term interest rates are now lower than those for short-term mortgage products.

The House Financial Services Committee held its final hearing Thursday on mortgage reform. The committee plans to vote on the bill next week and send it to the full House for approval soon after. Committee leaders say the legislation is needed to prevent those practices that led to the nation’s mortgage meltdown and financial crisis from being repeated.

Fannie Mae’s newly appointed president and CEO Michael J. Williams recruited three former bank executives to fill key management positions this week. To round out the company’s leadership team, Williams has hired Timothy J.

The city of Detroit has implemented a new vacant property procedure that allows city inspectors to board up vacant, foreclosed homes at the cost of the property owner. The city says the ordinance is intended to secure and protect vacant properties for the safety of the community.

According to new research by Standard & Poor’s released this week, $250 billion of securitized mortgages are presently in bankruptcy, foreclosure, or REO, and the company says the performance of private-label securities – those that banks keep on their books – are expected to decline even further.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) reported on Wednesday that U.S. home prices rose 0.7 percent from January to February, based on the purchase prices of homes owned or guaranteed by the GSEs. It’s the second month in a row that FHFA has recorded a national gain in residential real estate values.

A report released on Tuesday by the Special Inspector General’s Office for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) is calling for greater oversight of the administration’s financial rescue efforts.

Freddie Mac’s acting CFO David Kellermann, 41, was found dead in his Vienna, Virginia home early Wednesday morning. According to Washington, D.C. television station WUSA, Kellermann’s wife told local police he committed suicide.

Lenders One Mortgage Cooperative, a national alliance of mortgage bankers headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, announced on Monday that it has renewed its contract with Fannie Mae as a preferred investor.

California’s median home prices dipped by less than half a percentage point in March, according to a report released last week by housing market researcher MDA Data Quick. The company also noted that prices were similarly steady in January and February, perhaps a signal that the Golden State’s tumultuous housing market is leveling off.