Tag Archives: Freddie Mac

As part of the continued effort to excise all deeply delinquent, non-performing single-family residential loans from its mortgage portfolio, Freddie Mac has announced its first-ever Extended Timeline Pool Offering (EXPO) auction.

As is true in several other sections of the industry, regulatory compliance was a hot button issue. Several discussions at the Servicer Summit were centered on the question of how to adapt to constant regulatory changes and avoid the adverse effects of non-compliance. The evolving business landscape was another major theme of discussion at the Servicer Summit. With foreclosures on the decline in the last two to three years, many default servicing firms have struggled to maintain their position in the industry.

When considering adjustments to G-fees for certain categories of loans, FHFA took into account the decision (also announced Friday) to enhance the eligibility standards for mortgage insurance companies. Overall, the FHFA said, the modest changes being made to the upfront G-fees are revenue neutral and will mean little or no change for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

The Neighborhood Stabilization Initiative is a set of strategies that aim to help delinquent borrowers avoid foreclosure and create a more efficient disposition path for foreclosed properties that will first be introduced in Cook County, Illinois. The housing market in the county, which contains Chicago, took a precipitous dive at the end of 2008 that took four years to reverse, according to data from DePaul University.

Also under the terms of the settlement, there was no disgorgement, civil penalty, or admission of wrongdoing on the part of any of the parties, according to a press release from Zuckerman Spaeder, the firm that represented defendant Patricia Cook.

Fannie Mae just announced last week that it is in the process of marketing its first-ever bulk sale of non-performing loans. Bids are due for this bundle of NPLs, worth about $786 million, on May 6 and the sale is expected to close in mid- to late June – but there could be more similar sales coming later.

Freddie Mac's April prediction for GDP growth of 2.6 percent is a slight decline from March's forecast of 2.8 amid disappointing incoming data from the first quarter and harsh winter weather. This did not put a damper on Freddie Mac's overall forecast for housing, however. In fact, the title of the report, "Great Expectations," indicated that analysts at Freddie Mac still believe 2015 will be the best year for housing since the pre-recession days.

U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has written separate letters to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and U.S. Department of Treasury Secretary Jack Lew seeking more transparency from the government regarding GSE profits.

While this STACR offering will be similar to Freddie Mac's recent STACR transactions, the difference will be that losses will be allocated based on actual losses realized on the related reference obligations as opposed to allocating losses to the debt notes based on a fixed severity approach.

With Fannie Mae's announcement on Thursday that it is going to begin selling pools of non-performing single-family mortgage loans, it is clear that the GSEs are making a strong push to rid themselves of the backlog of deeply delinquent loans on their books five years after the peak of the foreclosure wave.