Tag Archives: Fannie Mae

Congress' last-minute accord to avert a default wasn't enough to save the United States' top rating from Standard & Poor's. The agency downgraded the long-term credit rating of the U.S. to AA+, a grade just below the AAA rating the U.S. had held for 70 years. Analysts were expecting a temporary spike in Treasury yields, which are closely tied to mortgage rate trajectories, but investors responded with a rush on Treasuries, pushing yields down 13 basis points. Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Federal Home Loan Banks also had their S&P ratings lowered to AA+ on Monday.

Fannie Mae's second-quarter loss narrowed from the previous quarter, but still in the red, the GSE says it needs to draw another $5 billion from Treasury, bringing its tally of taxpayer-funded support to $104.8 billion since the company was placed into conservatorship. The company reported a net loss of $2.9 billion for the April-to-June period, compared to a net loss of $6.5 billion in the first quarter of the year. Fannie Mae acquired 53,697 REO homes through foreclosure over the three months ending in June.

Senator Jack Reed (D-Rhode Island) has sent a letter to the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) recommending the agency require Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac rent out foreclosed properties rather than immediately attempting to sell them at bargain prices. Reed believes renting the properties would help the market on all fronts by reducing foreclosure inventories, providing affordable housing, and creating jobs in hard-hit industries.

After heading higher for three straight months, the nation's unemployment rate declined to 9.1 percent in July, down from 9.2 percent in June, according to figures released Friday by the U.S. Department of Labor. The economy added 117,000 jobs last month. July's numbers beat analysts' forecasts. Investors are hoping the news will help dispel fears of a double-dip recession and quell some of the sell-off frenzy seen in the stock market yesterday, which led to the largest one-day drop in the Dow since the financial upheaval following Lehman Brothers' collapse.

The Five Star Institute has announced a partnership with Fannie Mae to educate real estate agents on Fannie Mae's Short Sale Assistance Desk (SSAD). Fannie Mae's SSAD helps expedite the process by allowing real estate agents to reach out to the GSE directly for short sale approval of first-lien, Fannie Mae-backed loans. Agents can access the appropriate forms through multiple listing services. With 107,953 short sales in 2010, such transactions continue in significant numbers this year - 35,406 as of April, according to a federal report.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) filed a lawsuit last week in a New York federal court against UBS Americas, Inc. for violations of federal securities laws related to UBS' sale of $4.5 billion in private-label residential mortgage-backed securities to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The lawsuit alleges that UBS Americas made material misstatements and omissions about the mortgage loans underlying the bonds. Fannie and Freddie claim they have already lost in excess of 20 percent of their entire investment.

Fannie Mae has issued a notice to servicers alerting them of a change in the effective date for new delinquency management and default prevention standards. According to the bulletin, Fannie is pushing the date by which servicers must implement the new requirements out by a month to October 1, 2011. The revised rules are part of the directive issued by the company's regulator in late April to bring both Fannie Mae's and Freddie Mac's procedures for handling past-due mortgages in line with one another.

First Guaranty Mortgage Corp. (FGMC) will now offer Fannie Mae HomePath and HomePath renovation products through its wholesale lending and consumer direct lending channels. HomePath is the GSE's venture for marketing and selling REO properties it takes ownership of after the foreclosure process, providing special financing terms for the purchase of select Fannie Mae-owned properties. FGMC is one of only a handful of mortgage lenders in the country to be approved to provide the HomePath product.

Home prices in the U.S. rose in May, marking the second consecutive monthly increase, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) reported Thursday. Before the string of two-month gains, FHFA's market gauge had recorded declines in property prices for 10 straight months. The agency's monthly House Price Index (HPI) is calculated using purchase prices of homes backing mortgages that have been sold to or guaranteed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. It rose 0.4 percent from April to May.

With mortgage delinquencies at unprecedented levels, it's become clear that the current servicing-fee model is lacking. The GSEs and Ginnie Mae are in the process of developing new servicing compensation structures to provide greater flexibility for the servicing of nonperforming loans. As deliberations move forward, the Mortgage Bankers Association is recommending they consider the idea of a new ""reserve account"" strategy to cover the higher expenses associated with default servicing.