Tag Archives: Freddie Mac

The Work Number, an employment and income verification service of Equifax, recently launched a new product, Point In Time, which, according to the company, is a response to market demands for loan-level documentation to investigate repurchases and mortgage insurance rescissions. Designed to provide retro income verification services to validate and document a borrower's employment and income for loan funding, Point In Time was created to help lenders, insurers, and investors automate and streamline the quality assurance process.

Freddie Mac says it cut its total mortgage portfolio by an annualized rate of 5.2 percent in August. The GSE has been downsizing for most of this year. Only two months during the early part of 2010 saw increases in the company's portfolio size. The GSE also reported that its single-family delinquency rate decreased to 3.83 percent in August, down from 3.89 percent the month before. The multifamily delinquency rate, on the other hand, increased to 0.32 percent, up from 0.30 percent in July.

According to a statement released by Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, the companies are in the process of developing the Uniform Appraisal Dataset (UAD) to improve the quality and consistency of appraisal data on loans delivered to the GSEs. Business and technical details of the UAD, implementation dates for the Uniform Collateral Data Portal (UCDP), and use of the UAD and UCDP are expected to be released later this year. Implementations will occur in 2011.

The August Mortgage Monitor report released Friday by Lender Processing Services shows that foreclosure starts are continuing to accelerate, with the GSEs displaying more aggressive timelines on early stage delinquencies. Last month, the company tracked 282,528 newly initiated foreclosures. That's 20 percent above a year ago and the highest level recorded by LPS since January of this year, when there were 287,865. As of August month end, there had been more than 2 million foreclosure starts so far this year.

Banks that sold bad mortgages to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have a contractual obligation to buy the loans back, according to their regulator. But many of the nation's largest institutions aren't living up to their end of that commitment. The director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency says that as of the end of the second quarter, Fannie Mae had $4.7 billion in outstanding repurchase requests, and Freddie Mac had $6.4 billion -- more than a third of which have been outstanding for more than 90 days.

According to the national nonprofit Homeownership Preservation Foundation (HPF), economists estimate that close to 4 million homeowners will face delinquency in the near future. In an effort to help thwart this assessment, HPF works to provide information and financial education to guide consumers toward sustainable homeownership. The foundation reports that its Homeowner's HOPE Hotline has aided more than 4 million distressed homeowners since the financial crisis began in 2008.

The weekly reports on mortgage interest rates were mixed this week - but figures are still lingering close to record-lows, improving affordability for both homebuyers and borrowers looking to refinance. Freddie Mac reported Thursday that both the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rate and the 15-year fixed-rate were unchanged from last week, while shorter-term rates were mixed. Bankrate said mortgage rates across the board dropped to new record lows it its study.

Fannie Mae says it is working with the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) to develop and adopt new appraiser independence requirements that will replace the controversial Home Valuation Code of Conduct (HVCC) enacted by the GSEs in May of last year. Until the revised requirements are released, the existing HVCC provisions are still in effect. Fannie Mae says it expects the new appraisal rules to be issued by October 21, but that they will be ""substantially similar"" to HVCC.

Oklahoma City's a la mode recently announced that Veros Real Estate Solutions has integrated their VeroSELECT and Valuation Risk Management products with the company's Mercury Network vendor management platform. The integration connects Veros' platform clients with one of the industry's largest networks of real estate appraisers and appraisal management companies, and provides electronic appraisal submission in full compliance with the GSE's Uniform Mortgage Data Program (UMDP) requirements.

Two closely-watched industry studies that track weekly mortgage interest rates were sending mixed signals on Thursday. The good news for homebuyers and borrowers looking to refinance is that rates are still hovering near 50-year lows. Freddie Mac reported that the 30-year rate edged up to 4.37 percent this week, while the 15-year rate dropped to 3.82 percent. Bankrate reported declines across the board.