Tag Archives: Freddie Mac

Freddie Mac reported Monday that it lost $4.7 billion during the second quarter. The GSE is asking the Treasury for another $1.8 billion of taxpayer dollars. Freddie has drawn $64 billion from its line of credit with the Treasury since the government took control of the mortgage giant in September 2008. Despite a continuous string of losses - this was the 11th in the last 12 quarters - Freddie Mac's latest earnings report actually marks an improvement. For the previous three-month period, the GSE posted a $6.7 billion loss.

Leaders of the House Financial Services Committee say they are looking for ways to recoup the billions of dollars the federal government has sunk into the GSEs over the past two years. Taxpayer support to shore up Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac stands at $145 billion so far, and the tab keeps rising. Rep. Paul Kanjorski says, ""Twenty years ago, we found a way for industry to pay back the sizable U.S. Treasury payments for resolving the savings-and-loan crisis. We can do it again.""

The U.S. Federal Reserve is in the same boat as the banks now, dealing with a mortgage portfolio that's riddled with deficiencies and delinquencies. The central bank's New York branch has been saddled with a heap of souring loans from the assets it picked up to support the 2008 bailout of Bear Stearns. And now, as more and more of these loans - both residential and commercial - fall into default, the New York Fed is faced with a dilemma: to foreclose or not to foreclose.

Mortgage rates seem to be hitting new record lows on a weekly basis. And this week wasn't any exception, as reports released Thursday by Freddie Mac and Bankrate showed yet another decline in rates for the week ending August 4, 2010. According to Freddie Mac, 30-year fixed-rate mortgages averaged 4.49 percent, and 15-year fixed-rate mortgages fell to a record low of 3.95 percent. Bankrate reported the same trend of ever-declining rates. The tracking company said 30-year fixed-rate mortgages came in at 4.66 percent, and 15-year fixed-rate mortgages averaged 4.11 percent.

The nation's two largest mortgage companies have published forecasts lowering their projections for home sales and mortgage production, industry-wide. The economists at Fannie Mae are tempering public expectations for the housing market with a candid warning: the headwinds in housing have picked up. Freddie Mac's economic team slimmed down its projected numbers, but said the market has gained enough momentum to carry through the occasional setbacks.

Christopher Kuehl was recently named SVP of mortgage investments at Bethesda, Maryland-based American Capital Agency Management, LLC, the external manager of American Capital Agency Corp. (AGNC), a REIT that invests in agency pass-through securities and collateralized mortgage obligations for which the principal and interest payments are guaranteed by a U.S. government agency. Kuehl joined American Capital from Freddie Mac, where he most recently served as VP, head of agency and nonagency mortgage investments.

Freddie Mac announced Monday that it has appointed Jerry Weiss to the newly created position of chief administrative officer. In this new position, Weiss will manage external relations and human resources for Freddie Mac. In addition, he will continue to serve as the company's chief compliance officer and oversee the compliance, economics and strategy, regulatory affairs, and mission divisions.

Even with record-low mortgage rates, many refinancing borrowers are choosing to pay down their loan balances rather than borrow more money. According to a recent report by Freddie Mac, cash-in borrowers - those who reduced their principal balance by paying in additional money at the closing table - represented 22 percent of all borrowers who refinanced during the second quarter, up from 19 percent the previous quarter. This, Freddie said, tied the record for the third highest cash-in share since the GSE began keeping records on refinancing patterns in 1985.

Mortgage rates continued to slide downward for the week ending July 29, 2010, marking yet another round of record lows, Freddie Mac and Bankrate reported Thursday. According to Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage Market Survey, 30-year fixed-rate mortgages averaged 4.54 percent this week, and 15-year fixed-rate mortgages fell to 4 percent. Bankrate said 30-year fixed-rate mortgages came in at 4.71 percent, and 15-year fixed-rate mortgages inched down to 4.17 percent.

David M. Moffett has been named to the board of directors at CIT Group Inc., a century-old middle market business lender that emerged from Chapter 11 just seven months ago after filing for bankruptcy in November 2009. Moffett served as CEO of Freddie Mac for a very short period during one of the most tumultuous times in the GSE's history, from when it was placed into conservatorship by the federal government in September 2008 to March 2009.