Tag Archives: Fannie Mae

David Stevens, president and CEO of the Mortgage Bankers Associations, is voicing concerns about legislation (H.R. 6429) that would raise guarantee fees charged on single-family mortgages by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in order to pay for immigration reforms. Stevens issued a public statement stressing that the GSEs' guarantee fees are supposed to be used to offset risks associated with their mortgage purchases. He says dipping into the housing piggybank to pay for unrelated policy items on the backs of America's homebuyers sends the wrong message.

Prospect Mortgage, LLC, announced the appointment of Michael J. Williams, former president and CEO of Fannie Mae, as chairman of its board of directors. Prospect Mortgage is a top-10 originator of home purchase loans, offering conventional, jumbo, super-jumbo, Federal Housing Administration, and Veterans Affairs mortgages as well as home renovation loans.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) announced Thursday that the maximum conforming loan limits for mortgages acquired by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in 2013 will remain at existing levels. In most of the country, the loan limit will be $417,000 for one-unit properties, but that ceiling goes as high as $625,500 in certain high-cost markets.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) reported home prices continued to climb higher in September, with prices gaining by 0.2 percent from August. On the same day Tuesday, the Case-Shiller Indices posted a similar monthly increase of 0.3 percent. FHFA's house price index (HPI) also revealed a quarterly price gain of 1.1 percent from the second to the third quarter. Compared to the third quarter last year, prices rose 4 percent. The agency stated the monthly index has increased for eight straight months now.

Given improvements seen in housing, Fannie Mae revised its housing forecast higher for 2012 and 2013 in its November economic outlook report. The GSE's Economic & Strategic Research Group anticipates single-family housing starts will jump 25 percent this year, then rise by another 22 percent in 2013. Existing-home sales should also rise and see a 9 percent increase in 2012 and a 4 percent gain in 2013. Even though reports on the housing sector give reasons to be optimistic, Fannie Mae still warned ""data continue to show a sluggish recovery overall.""

An analysis released by Keefe, Bruyette & Woods(KBW) found representation and warranty costs for loan repurchases remained elevated in Q3. According to KBW, current losses can mostly be attributed to loans sold to the GSEs. Fannie Mae repurchases totaled $2.02 billion in Q3, and its balance of outstanding repurchase requests increased to $16.2 billion. Meanwhile, Freddie Mac repurchases totaled $819 million, and its outstanding requests ticked up to $2.94 billion.

Despite the recent declines in homeownership, the cost burden of owning a home decreased in 2011 and has ""fallen substantially for young owners during the last four years,"" Fannie Mae stated in a recent report. When measuring housing cost burden, analysts often look for households paying more than 30 percent of their gross income in housing costs, which analysts define as rental or mortgage payments combined with utility spending. In 2011, the percentage of homeowners who fell into this category decreased by about one percentage point. In contrast, the number of renters in this category grew.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac updated their disaster relief policies for borrowers impacted by Hurricane Sandy. The policies apply to properties in eligible disaster areas and are specifically for borrowers who have mortgages secured by one of the GSEs. One of the announced policies allows servicers to grant 90-day foreclosure sale and 90-day eviction suspensions. Services are also authorized to extend forbearance and repayment plans for up to 12 months for certain borrowers.

Fannie Mae has experienced significant improvements in recent months. The GSE reported a $1.8 billion net income for the third quarter of this year, a notable improvement over the $5.1 billion loss reported in the same quarter last year. Fannie Mae's third quarter report states the entity will not require a draw from Treasury this quarter. Fannie Mae also incurred a net income of $9.7 billion over the first three quarters of this year, leading the GSE to expect an annual net income for the first time since 2006.

It's been a tumultuous couple of weeks for Americans, but mortgage rates have been rock-steady. Freddie Mac reported mixed rate movements for the week ending November 8, but any budges made were small. The average rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) for the week was 3.40 percent (0.7 point), up slightly from 3.39 percent in the previous week's survey. The 15-year fixed average fell, meanwhile, dropping to 2.69 percent (0.7 point) from 2.70 percent previously.