Tag Archives: Fannie Mae

A report released Wednesday by the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) was critical of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s collection of late fees. The report criticized the two for poor management of late fee collection, noting large sums of money either not being consistently collected or collected at all.

Fannie Mae announced Thursday that homebuyers can now receive up to 3.5 percent in closing cost assistance. The help is available within the FirstLook period of Fannie Mae’s HomePath properties in 27 states. The incentive will offer qualified buyers up to 3.5 percent of the final sales price to pay closing costs.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) released a report Wednesday, outlining conclusions drawn from a study done on the Servicing Alignment Initiative (SAI). The assessment of servicers provided by the FHFAOIG was far from glowing, citing specific areas of improvement for servicers of Government-Sponsored Enterprise (GSE) mortgages, specifically those who service Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

It appears more consumers have taken notice of reports of slowing home price gains. The share of consumers in Fannie Mae's January National Housing Survey who said they expect home prices to increase in the next year fell 6 percentage points to 43 percent, while the share expecting prices to stay the same increased 7 percentage points to 45 percent. The average 12-month home price change expectation was 2.0 percent.

A new commentary from Fannie Mae attempts to address a perplexing question: With mortgage rates down steadily in the last several years and greater opportunity for significant savings, why have so many borrowers elected not to refinance?

About four years after the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) directed the GSEs to develop a uniform collateral data portal, the Office of the Inspector General of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA OIG) finds the portal is not being used to its potential, and the GSEs continue to purchase loans with red flags.

Almost everyone agrees that something needs to be done with the GSEs, and almost everyone recognizes that the “something” will be a complex undertaking, but we must be up to this task, we must be thoughtful about reform, avoid unintended consequences, and strike a middle ground between growing a private mortgage market and providing a government backstop.

In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Tuesday, Morgan Stanley revealed it has reached a $1.25 billion agreement in principle with FHFA to resolve pending mortgage-backed securities (MBS)-related litigation. In connection with the settlement, the company announced it is recording a $150 million addition to its fourth-quarter legal reserves.

MountainView Servicing Group is marketing a $2.4 billion Fannie Mae mortgage servicing rights portfolio. According to MountainView, the portfolio is made up of 100 percent first-lien loans with an average loan-to-value ratio of 76 percent and an average FICO score of 765.

Fannie Mae’s book of business shrank in December, ending a short streak of growth and marking the eighth month of 2013 in which business slowed.