Tag Archives: Fannie Mae

In a release Wednesday, the association accused FHFA of ""moving ahead with its REO bulk sales pilot initiative in a highly secretive manner, despite vehement opposition from California congressional members, the negative economic impact to the state's housing market, and cost to taxpayers."" In response to what the C.A.R. calls ""FHFA's failure to implement the REO initiative in an open and transparent manner,"" the organization has filed a request for details through the Freedom of Information Act.

Fannie Mae's Economic & Strategic Research Group issued its latest economic outlook, maintaining its expectations for modest growth in 2012. This news comes in spite of reports of strengthening retail sales and job growth in July. The group pointed to dismal news throughout the first half of the year as reasoning for its unchanging outlook. However, even with slowing job growth, global and domestic economic uncertainty, and a decline in consumer spending, things are not anticipated to get worse.

Treasury announced Friday a set of modifications to agreements between itself and FHFA designed to help speed up the wind down of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. In addition to reducing the GSEs' mortgage portfolios in a more timely manner, these modifications are designed to ensure that each firm's earnings benefit taxpayers and help reform the housing finance market.

Analysts with Fitch Ratings found a lot to like about the recent second-quarter earnings for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The consensus: Stronger mortgage portfolios mean less pressure on Congress and the next administration, giving Fannie and Freddie some elbow-room as their legacy portfolios shrink.

A former Fannie Mae executive now finds himself facing charges from the SEC of misleading investors about the GSE's loans. According to a complaint filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, ex-CEO Dan Mudd, along with two other defendants, allegedly misled investors into thinking the company had far less exposure risky loans than it actually had. SEC accuses Mudd, Enrico Dallavecchia, and Thomas Lund of creating ""materially false and misleading statements regarding Fannie Mae's exposure to subprime and Alt-A loans"" between 2006 and 2008.

HARP-assisted refinances drove record refinance activity in the month of June, FHFA revealed Tuesday. The agency released its Refinance Report for June 2012, showing that refinance volume remained strong in June as mortgage rates fell to all-time lows. An estimated 33 percent of refinance volume was done through HARP, the highest percentage since HARP's inception. The report revealed that at the end of June, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae had refinanced 422,969 loans through HARP in 2012, more than the estimated total of 400,000 for all of 2011. This brings the total number of HARP refinances by the GSEs to 1.4 million.

LenderLive Network Inc. announced Tuesday that it has received approval as a Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac servicer, making it eligible to service loans for the two GSEs.

Fannie Mae released its July 2012 National Housing Survey Tuesday, showing that consumer optimism regarding the slowly recovering housing market remained strong during the month. Survey respondents said they expect home prices to increase 1.7 percent in the next year, slightly down from the 2.0 percent survey high recorded in June. Eleven percent of respondents believe home prices will drop, the lowest level recorded since the survey began in June 2010.

MountainView Servicing Group announced Monday that it completed the sale of three bulk packages of mortgage servicing rights for Fannie Mae loans. The Denver-based subsidiary of MountainView Capital Holdings completed the sale on July 31.

Starting September 1, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will lower their standard modification interest rate from 4.625 percent to 4.25 percent. The GSEs stated the rates are adjusted based on market conditions.