Tag Archives: Fannie Mae

The California Association of Realtors has partnered with Fannie Mae on an initiative designed to help Realtors resolve issues that arise after a short sale offer is made on a Fannie Mae-backed loan. The effort centers around technology from the GSE, the Fannie Mae Short Sale Assistance Desk, which helps brokers and agents shorten the waiting period for approval on Fannie Mae short sale transactions. It also assists real estate professionals with post-contract issues, the existence of a second lien, or problems involving mortgage insurance.

In 2009 and 2010, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) approved salary packages totaling more than $35 million for executives at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The agency's Office of the Inspector General has released a report detailing the compensation levels of GSE execs for the past two years, noting that the CEOs of Fannie and Freddie together made $17 million during that period. The report points out that although the GSEs have lost billions of dollars and depend on federal support, their senior executives continue to receive multi-million dollar salaries.

Arkansas Governor Mike Beebe has signed House Bill 1388, making Arkansas the 22nd state to ban the use of Wall Street home resale fees, also known as private transfer fees. Private transfer fees require that homebuyers pay a percentage of the final sale price of a home to a private third party every time the property is sold, typically for 99 years. Issuers of these fees attempt to sell the right to collect them on Wall Street.

In a legislative hearing scheduled for Thursday, the House Financial Services Committee will listen to eight proposals centered around winding down Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac on a faster timeline than proposed by the Obama administration last month. The eight proposals include measures to raise guarantee fees the GSEs will charge for mortgage-backed securities they insure and to prevent the GSEs from offering any new products while they are under conservatorship.

Fannie Mae and Neighborhood Housing Services of South Florida (NHSSF) celebrated the one-year anniversary of Fannie Mae's South Florida Mortgage Help Center on Thursday. Since opening its doors in March 2010, the South Florida Mortgage Help Center has worked with more than 1,000 struggling families with loans owned by Fannie Mae. Of these, more than 64 percent received a retention solution that allowed them to remain in their homes.

Freddie Mac issued new policy guidelines to its servicers this week that prohibit foreclosures in the name of Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems Inc. (MERS). The electronic registry has come under fire lately, despite the fact that several state courts have recently upheld MERS' right to foreclose. It became a focus of last fall's robo-signing scandal when the MERS name appeared within defective affidavits. Fannie Mae told its servicers last spring they were no longer allowed to foreclose in MERS' name, and now Freddie Mac is following suit.

CoreLogic introduced its newest technology solution, IntelliMods, to the market Thursday. The company says the new Web-based application will allow users to put more distressed homeowners into modified loans by automating decisions and fulfillment for both government and private investor programs. The system automatically runs the necessary calculations to determine borrowers' loan modification eligibility and provides an audit trail of all decisions.

On Monday the Treasury announced that it will wind down the remaining $142 billion mortgage-backed securities (MBS) portfolio it carries. This news comes just as the federal government is making plans to drastically reduce its role in the mortgage marketplace. Beginning this month, Treasury plans to sell up to $10 billion in agency-guaranteed MBS each month, with the goal of fully extinguishing the portfolio in a little over a year and turning a profit for taxpayers.

There were many who opposed the hefty bank bailouts after the financial crisis set in, and they still have their ethical argument against the government's decision, but the fiscal argument is growing faint. Treasury announced this week that over 99 percent of the funds disbursed to banks through the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) have now been recovered. Even the largest bailout of all - that of Fannie and Freddie - is expected to shrink by nearly half over the next 10 years.

Active Data Technologies Inc., a Florida-based creator of custom REO Web sites, released a statement this week announcing that the company recently completed a pilot REO offer management platform for Fannie Mae. The program, available through the GSE's HomePath Web site allows agents representing homebuyers or investors to submit offers online to purchase Fannie Mae-owned properties in three test markets: Orlando, Florida; San Diego, California; and Wayne County, Michigan.