Tag Archives: Fannie Mae

Fannie Mae announced the opening of a new mortgage help center in Culver City, California, this week to provide counseling and other services for struggling homeowners in the greater metro area with loans owned by the GSE. The fourth facility in a series of nationwide mortgage help centers, the Greater Los Angeles Mortgage Help Center is a joint partnership between Fannie Mae and West Angeles Community Development Corporation, major mortgage servicers, and civic and community leaders.

The nation's largest mortgage financier reported a smaller loss during the third quarter than it did in the second, with the latest figures representing a $17 billion improvement over financial results from a year earlier. Fannie Mae says, though, that it needs another $2.5 billion from taxpayers to cover its net worth deficit. The GSE also reported that home retention actions were down 14 percent in Q3, while home repossessions rose by nearly 24 percent. As of September 30, Fannie Mae's inventory of single-family REO properties stood at 166,787.

Commercial and multifamily mortgage loan originations during the third quarter jumped 15 percent from the previous quarter and were 32 percent higher than during the same period last year, according to data released by the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) Thursday. Origination volumes for Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and life insurance companies were relatively strong, MBA says, but commercial mortgage borrowing at banks fell on both a quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year basis.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is putting mortgage lenders on alert regarding disclosures about potential losses from foreclosure paperwork defects and loans they may be forced to buy back from investors. In a letter sent to the chief financial officers of publicly traded banking companies, the federal agency reminded lenders that they are obligated to relay to their investors any known trends, commitments or uncertainties that they expect could have an ""unfavorable impact"" on the company's financial results.

Freddie Mac announced Tuesday that it has terminated its relationship with the law offices of David J. Stern, P.A. in Plantation, Florida. Fannie Mae, too, says it has suspended business with the so-called Florida foreclosure mill. The Stern law firm is one of the largest in the state, processing thousands of cases a month, and had been retained by both Fannie and Freddie as a preferred legal counsel for its servicers to go to handle pending foreclosures and home repossessions.

The percentage of home loans 90 or more days past due held by the nation's two largest mortgage companies has declined yet again. Both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have reported a steady drop in their single-family delinquency rates since February of this year. According to the latest figures from Fannie, its serious delinquency rate fell to 4.70 percent in August. Freddie's dropped to 3.80 percent at the end of September. Movement in the two GSEs' multifamily delinquency rates was mixed.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have both issued notices to servicers that they must work closely with state housing finance agencies to provide mortgage assistance to homeowners who've lost their jobs. Treasury awarded $7.6 billion for housing agencies in certain states to develop programs that provide temporary relief to unemployed homeowners. Effective immediately, GSE servicers are instructed to accept all monthly mortgage payments from housing finance agencies on behalf of borrowers enrolled in state-specific programs.

Fannie Mae's Payment Reduction Plan (PRP) program will sunset on December 31, 2010. The GSE's PRP program was introduced in 2009 to provide a borrower with temporary payment relief while the servicer and borrower worked together to find a permanent foreclosure prevention solution. According to a notice issued by Fannie on Friday, all PRPs must be initiated by December 31st and must end within six months of commencement, or no later than July 1, 2011.

Home prices across the country slipped in August, Standard & Poor's reported Tuesday. The agency's closely-watched gauge of residential property values recorded a 0.1 percent drop in the composite reading of 10 cities tracked, while the 20-city composite posted a 0.2 percent decline. Home prices decreased in 15 of the survey's 20 metropolitan statistical areas on a month-to-month basis. Only Chicago, Detroit, Las Vegas, New York, and Washington D.C. posted what S&P called ""marginal improvements.""

Kirchmeyer & Associates and its sister company, Real Info, recently partnered with Valligent to release a new collateral valuation product for appraising vacant residential land. The new solution, ParcelView, is intended to replace or enhance a lender's valuation tools for residential land collateral assessment and is expected to save lenders up to 50 percent compared to traditional land appraisals.