In a settlement announced Friday, HSBC agreed to pay $550 million to FHFA to resolve allegations it violated state and federal securities laws in its selling of private-label securities to the GSEs between 2005 and 2007. HSBC stopped issuing and distributing MBS in 2007.
Read More »Fannie Mae Relaxes Waiting Period for Distressed Borrowers
Fannie Mae recently released a report revising the waiting periods for borrowers with a derogatory credit event such as a foreclosure, bankruptcy, short sale, or deed-in-lieu of foreclosure on their credit history to obtain a new loan.
Read More »Research Group Expresses Both Support, Concern for FHFA Proposal
The securities "would combine the best features of each of the current securities," such that "the security would have the superior pooling features of the current Fannie Mae securities and the superior disclosure features of the Freddie Mac securities," according to the Urban Institute.
Read More »Housing Recovery Will Continue Into 2015 [Fannie Mae]
Improvements in the labor market in 2014 have not translated to widespread housing market recovery this year, according to the Fannie Mae August 2014 National Housing Survey. Instead, data in the survey indicated that recovery for the housing market will be slow heading into 2015. The number of people in the survey who said they believed now is a good time to sell a home fell six percentage points to 64 percent, an all-time low since the monthly survey began in June 2010. The number of people who said now is a good time to buy a home also declined to 38 percent.
Read More »CBO: Eliminating Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Would Save Billions
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released a cost estimate on Friday for S. 1217, a senate bill proposed June 2013 by Senator Bob Corker (R-Tennessee) that would eliminate GSEs Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and replace them with a private insurance company system with a government backstop. According to the newly-released estimate, removing the two GSEs would save the government billions of dollars in the next 10 years.
Read More »Analyst Warns of Potential Mortgage Crisis
With the Federal Reserve on track to end its monthly bond purchases (currently at a rate of $25 billion and falling), Bove cautions that the loss of one of the tools used to help lift housing out of its post-recession rut could hurt the market, especially as interest rates start to tick back up.
Read More »Fannie Mae News: Book of Business Declines in July
New business acquisitions totaled just less than $40 billion throughout the month, a nearly 12 percent rise over June and the strongest month for new business since last November, the mortgage giant reported.
Read More »Power Shift Could Result in Home Sales Spike
For July, Redfin recorded a 0.3 percent monthly decline in the median sales price of homes sold in the major metros the company tracks, marking the first time in five months that price growth was essentially flat.
Read More »Bank of America Requests Dismissal of ‘Hustle’ Case Verdict
The case revolves around mortgages originated through Countrywide's High Speed Swim Lane (HSSL, or "Hustle") program that were later sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The complaint against Bank of America alleged that Countrywide—which the bank purchased in 2008—threw out quality controls in pursuit of higher volumes and then misrepresented those loans to the GSEs.
Read More »Fannie Mae: Serious Delinquency Rate At Lowest Level Since ’08
In Fannie Mae's July 2014 Monthly Summary released on August 29, the GSE reported that July's serious delinquency rate of 2.0 percent for single-family properties is at its lowest level since October 2008.
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