Tag Archives: Freddie Mac

Former acting director and current senior deputy director Edward DeMarco announced his intent to part ways with the Federal Housing Finance Agency at the end of April. After serving the agency for nearly six years, Demarco confirmed his plans to depart in a letter to current agency director Mel Watt.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) released a report detailing the results of an audit performed on pre-foreclosure property inspections. The audit was conducted after the FHFAOIG learned of fraudulent property inspections reports submitted to the FHFA, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac by a contractor resulted in $12.7 million in payouts.

Freddie Mac released its latest Economic and Housing Market Outlook, expecting home sales to grow along with wages this year, despite a still-tough job market in most sectors. Freddie is projecting a 3 percent rise in home sales and a 20 percent rise in new home construction in 2014, which the agency expects to level out to a 5 percent overall growth.

Freddie Mac's weekly Primary Mortgage Market Survey, released Thursday, showed the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaging 4.32 percent (0.6 point) for the week ending March 20, down from last week, when it averaged 4.37 percent. A year ago, the 30-year FRM average was 3.54 percent.

According to Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey, the average rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) came up nearly a tenth of a percentage point to 4.37 percent (0.6 point) for the week ending March 13. Last year, the 30-year FRM averaged 3.63 percent. The 15-year fixed average was 3.38 percent (0.6 point), up from 3.32 percent last week.

Committee chairman Tim Johnson (D-South Dakota) and ranking member Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) of the Senate Banking Committee announced Tuesday plans to move forward on a new proposal to wind down Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in favor of a new government backstop for private financiers.

“Mortgage rates were down this week as real GDP was revised downwards to 2.4 percent growth in the fourth quarter of 2013,” said Frank Nothaft, VP and chief economist at Freddie Mac. “Fixed residential investment negatively contributed to GDP decreasing 8.7 percent in the fourth quarter.”

Bruce Berkowitz, managing member and chief investment officer of Fairholme Capital Management, sent a letter to both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac on Monday, urging the directors to "act in the best interests of each company and in accordance with accepted best practices for corporate governance."

Strong fourth-quarter 2013 earnings by Freddie Mac capped a year of unprecedented financial earnings for the government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs), but reflect several one-time items, according to a release issued by Fitch Ratings. Fitch comments, "While results of the type posted in 2013 will not be repeated, Fitch Ratings expects increased guarantee fees (g-fees) and improving mortgage credit quality to support continued profitability for the GSEs this year."

Freddie Mac released on Thursday its quarterly earnings report for the end of 2013, revealing yet another strong quarter—the ninth straight. Net income at the enterprise totaled $8.6 billion in Q4. For all of 2013, Freddie Mac reported providing liquidity for 1.6 million refinances; 515,000 home purchases; and 388,000 multifamily rental units.