Tag Archives: Fannie Mae

As mortgage rates climb, refinances are on the decline. However, refinances through the government's Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP) remain elevated compared to last year's volumes, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency's (FHFA) Refinance Report for the second quarter of 2013. HARP refinances totaled about 280,000 for the quarter, down slightly from about 290,000 in the first quarter of this year, FHFA reported.

Fannie Mae's past due loans continue to decline. The GSE reported Tuesday that its conventional single-family serious delinquency rate was 2.70 percent in July, down seven basis points from June. The multifamily serious delinquency rate was 0.18 percent, a drop of 10 basis points. Fannie Mae completed 11,870 loan modifications during the month, bringing the year's total to 95,381 for the first seven months of 2013.

Known as the Servicer Total Achievement and Rewards, or STAR, the program was created to establish servicing standards and acknowledge Fannie Mae servicers that stand out for their performance, customer service, and foreclosure prevention efforts, according to a release. Servicers recognized for the first half of 2013 in peer group one were Green Tree Servicing, Nationstar Mortgage, Ocwen Financial, PHH Mortgage, PNC Financial Services Group, Seterus, and Wells Fargo. In peer group two, Fannie Mae gave a nod to Fifth Third Bank and Regions Bank.

Earlier this year, reports surfaced of short sales that were erroneously reported as foreclosures on consumer credit reports. According to reports, the standardized computer software the credit industry was relying on lacked a specific code for short sales. In an updated notice, Fannie Mae addressed the reporting issue, stating it ""has been made aware that there are often inconsistencies in the credit data"" for short sales and deeds-in-lieu.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency's (FHFA) House Price Index (HPI) rose 2.1 percent from the first to second quarter, marking the eighth consecutive quarterly increase. In June alone, the index was up 0.7 percent month-over-month. Compared with the same quarter last year, home prices increased 7.2 percent, while prices of other goods and services inched up only 1.0 percent. According to FHFA, the inflation-adjusted price of homes rose approximately 6.2 percent over the latest year.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency Office of Inspector General (FHFA OIG) overall approves of Fannie Mae's $11.6 billion settlement earlier this year, though it does raise some questions regarding FHFA's treatment of compensatory fees and servicing transfers. FHFA OIG believes FHFA needs to establish set guidance for compensatory fees. Another concern the OIG labeled in a report is the transfer of servicing rights to specialty servicers.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have both updated their seller guides to incorporate the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's Ability to Repay rule under the Truth in Lending Act. The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) worked with the GSEs to update their respective seller guides in alignment with one another. The basic goal of the ""Ability to Repay"" rule is to ensure lenders act in good faith that a borrower can repay his or her loan before offering the loan.

Fannie Mae's Economic & Strategic Research group expects economic growth to gain momentum in the later half of the year following a slow start. Looking ahead, the group expects GDP growth will average 2.0 percent for the year, accelerating to 2.6 percent in 2014 as fiscal drags peel away and the housing recovery continues. According to Fannie Mae chief economist Doug Duncan, ""[t]he biggest risk to this forecast is the expected reduction in the Federal Reserve's asset purchases.""

During a Bipartisan Policy Center forum Tuesday, experts generally agreed the housing market is on the path to recovery, but the strength of the national recovery remained in question. According to Douglas G. Duncan, chief economist at Fannie Mae, we may be in a recovery, but it has been the ""weakest recovery since World War II"" when considering income growth. Richard Smith, CEO and president of Realogy, took a more optimistic approach and stated we are in the early stages of a ""fairly strong recovery,"" with prices reacting to inadequate supply.

Fannie Mae&'s second-quarter profits nearly doubled year-over-year, the GSE reported. The company reported Thursday net income of $10.1 billion in Q2 2013 compared to $5.1 billion for Q2 2012. It was the sixth consecutive quarter of profit for Fannie Mae. Comprehensive income totaled $10.3 billion, again nearly double that of the same quarter last year ($5.4 billion).