Tag Archives: Freddie Mac

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have seen a steady falloff in the rate of loans 90 or more days overdue since early this year, but their latest figures show the rate continuing to head down for one, up for the other. Both GSEs have dialed up the pressure lately for big banks to buy back bad loans. But the lenders themselves are doing their own dialing up, only it's in the form of stronger resistance to repurchase requests. The two mortgage giants are planning to implement new lending guidelines and fee structures for riskier loans.

Home prices in the United States fell 2.0 percent in the third quarter of 2010, breaking what had been a trend of fairly steady gains since early last year, Standard & Poor's reported Tuesday. The company's closely watched national index had recorded quarter-over-quarter increases in four of the last five three-month periods, including a 4.7 percent rise in the second quarter of this year. Many analysts are expecting that dreaded double dip to set in before next spring.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have instructed their selling agents to move forward with transactions involving foreclosed properties in cases where sales were suspended due to potential problems with the legal paperwork. The GSEs were forced to temporarily halt the sale of certain properties when news surfaced that some of the nation's largest servicers had been employing so-called robo-signers. Now that case reviews have uncovered no evidence of improper foreclosures, Fannie and Freddie are moving to proceed with REO sales.

Rep. Randy Neugebauer (R-Texas) has sent a letter to the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) requesting Acting Director Edward DeMarco to provide full details of how taxpayer dollars are being spent to pay for lawyer's fees and legal costs for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Neugebauer says he's concerned that the taxpayers are picking up the tab for ongoing legal counsel for the very executives who drove the GSEs into conservatorship. The congressman wants a report from FHFA no later than December 31.

Freddie Mac reported Wednesday that mortgage rates remained stable this week, rising only slightly from the rates reported last week. A separate study from Bankrate reports rates dipped slightly this week. This week's Freddie survey shows 30-year-fixed-rate-mortgages averaging at 4.40 percent. Bankrate's study puts them at 4.58 percent.

Home prices in the U.S. continued to fall in the third quarter, with declines in most parts of the country, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA). FHFA's purchase-only house price index is calculated from mortgages acquired by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. It was 1.6 percent lower in the third quarter when compared to the second. Analysts warn that we may have entered a second downturn, although likely shorter and less severe than the one that brought the financial system to its knees.

Mortgage applications for home purchases jumped during the third week of November to their highest level since May. The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reported Wednesday that its index of purchase applications soared 14.4 percent for the week ending November 19th. MBA says the increase suggests growing consumer confidence. It offset a 1.0 percent decline in applications for mortgage refinancing, which in contrast, hit their lowest mark since the end of June.

Servicers have picked up the pace as they work through a backlog of loans that have languished in late-stage delinquency status for months, and in some cases well over a year. As a result, Lender Processing Services says lenders' foreclosure inventories have risen dramatically and are about 7.4 times above the historical average. Increases in delinquency numbers have remained subdued, however, as loans are pushed out the end of the pipeline faster than new delinquencies enter.

Mortgage interest rates rose dramatically this week, after lingering around half-century lows for months. The upsurge comes just two weeks after the Federal Reserve announced plans to purchase another $600 billion in Treasury securities, a move that is meant to hold interest rates down. Rates are still extremely low by historical standards, but the sharp increases seen in just one week's time - long-term rates jumped by about 20 basis points in two separate industry studies - serve as an abrupt reminder that trends can reverse on a dime.

First-time homebuyers purchased half of all homes that were sold from July 2009 to June 2010, according to an annual survey of buyers and sellers conducted by the National Association of Realtors (NAR). It's the highest share of first-time homebuyers in the history of NAR's study, which dates back to 1981. The trade group attributed its findings to the success of the government's tax credits, but also voiced concern that today's credit policy restrictions are locking responsible borrowers out of homeownership.