Tag Archives: Urban Institute

The mortgage portfolios of both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac expanded slightly to start the year. Will this have an effect on winding the portfolios down while they are under the FHFA's conservatorship?

Why is the FHFA extending its principal reduction program to only 33,000 borrowers when there are three million underwater borrowers nationwide?

America's housing finance system is in what some call a "dysfunctional limbo." Not only is it underperforming, but it is also outdated and in desperate need of a complete revamping among its mission, activities, products, and services.

Credit availability in the mortgage industry increased slightly in the fourth quarter, reversing a long-time downward trend over the last four quarters.

The GSEs began their risk-sharing initiatives in 2013 as a way to transfer risk from taxpayers to private investors while the Enterprises remain in conservatorship of the FHFA. Since then, the GSEs have transferred a substantial portion of the credit risk for mortgages totaling hundreds of billions of dollars in unpaid principal balance (UPB).

The authors of the report found that 96 million American renters have never had a mortgage—and 42 percent of them have some other type of consumer debt in collections.

One-mighty private-label securities‒‒mortgages without government involvement‒‒ have been a bit player since the financial collapse of 2008. And according to the Urban Institute, deal agents may just be the way to bring the sector back.

In 2014, mortgage debt was the third-highest form of debt among consumers, with 28 percent holding some form of housing-related debt, the report showed. The highest percentage of consumers have mortgage debt in their late 30s through their early 60s. For borrowers with mortgages, debt balances averaged $160,000 in 2014, up from $150,000 in 2010.

Although agency mortgage-backed securities liquidity has declined recently, it remains mostly where it was prior to the housing bubble; the current levels of agency MBS liquidity are likely to be in place for a while, since the factors driving the decline are unlikely to slow down in the foreseeable future.

Today, the GSEs and Ginnie Mae are the only companies securitizing loans in large numbers. The GSEs typically attract high quality, less risky loans within their limits, while Ginnie Mae mostly caters to minorities and first-time buyers.