Freddie Mac Posts More Losses
Freddie Mac recorded a loss of $7.8 billion in the last three months of 2009, narrowed from a year-earlier loss of $23.9 billion; and it lost $25.7 billion for all of last year, down from a $50.1 billion loss in 2008.
Still, the mortgage financier — which received $51 billion in aid from the federal government — said for the third consecutive quarter it would not need more taxpayer assistance.
Freddie Mac is spending money on housing recovery initiatives, but losses were tied to factors such as a decline in its portfolio of mortgage investments and dividend payments that must be made to the Treasury.
Source: The Washington Post, Zachary A. Goldfarb (02/25/10)
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Fannie, Freddie Go After Bad Loans
Accountants at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are auditing mortgage files to uncover loans with improper documentation about a borrower’s income, and then forcing banks and savings and loans to buy the loans back.
Freddie required lenders to buy back $2.7 billion of loans in the first nine months of 2009. Fannie Mae won’t disclose its figures, but the mortgage trade publication Inside Mortgage Finance said Fannie made $4.3 billion in loan-repurchase requests in the first nine months of 2009.
One result is that banks are underwriting mortgage loans even more carefully than they were last year, which can further slow the lending process.
“If you’re being hit with a lot of repurchases very suddenly, the easiest thing to do is to tighten your standards rapidly,” said Glenn Boyd, a Barclays analyst.
Source: The Wall Street Journal, Nick Timiraos (01/30/2010)
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Mortgage Rates Creep Back Up
After last week’s decrease to a record 4.71 percent, interest on 30-year fixed mortgages rose to 4.81 percent this week, Freddie Mac reported.
While the Federal Reserve’s effort to purchase $1.25 trillion in mortgage-backed securities issued by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and Ginnie Mae has helped keep rates attractive, Freddie Mac chief economist Frank Nothaft says they rose because a favorable unemployment report pushed long-term bond yields up slightly.
With the Fed program projected to end in March, the Mortgage Bankers Association forecast in October that 30-year fixed mortgages will rise to 5.4 percent next year, increase to 6 percent in 2011, and hit 6.3 percent in 2012.
Source: Inman News (12/11/09)
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Long-Term Mortgages Near Record Low
Thirty-year, fixed-rate mortgages moved closer to the all-time low of 4.82 percent reached in May, falling to 4.87 percent this week from 4.94 percent a week ago, according to Freddie Mac. Home owners who refinance have an opportunity to reduce their payment on a 30-year, fixed-rate loan for $200,000 by nearly $134 a month from a year ago, when long-term rates averaged 5.94 percent. Other mortgage averages were as follows:
* 15-year loans fell to 4.33 percent.
* Five-year adjustable-rate mortgages dropped to 4.35 percent.
* One-year ARMs rose to 4.53 percent.
Source: Chicago Sun-Times, Francine Knowles
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FHFA Gets More Funding
The Federal Housing Finance Authority (FHFA) will have a $139.3 million budget for fiscal year 2010, up 15 percent from a year ago. This increase will help the watchdog in supervising Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
The FHFA says the two mortgage financiers have refinanced 3.2 million loans this year, and its data indicates that the volume of loan workouts is tied to average mortgage rates. However, the volume of mortgage modifications is still below expectations.
Source: DSNews, Adam Weinstein (10/05/2009)
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TIME RUNNING OUT…
TIME RUNNING OUT ON FREDDIE MAC OFFER TO PAY UP TO 3.5 PERCENT OF CLOSING COSTS ON ELIGIBLE HOMESTEPS® HOMES.
McLean, VA – Freddie Mac (NYSE:FRE) today reminded homebuyers they have less than a month left to take advantage of Freddie Mac’s offer to pay up to 3.5 percent of the buyer’s closing costs when they buy a single family HomeSteps® home as their primary residence under HomeSteps “SmartBuy”.
HomeSteps SmartBuy, which began on July 17, 2009, also includes a comprehensive two-year home warranty on HomeSteps homes. HomeSteps is the real estate sales unit of Freddie Mac and markets a nationwide selection of Freddie Mac-owned homes.
To take advantage of the HomeSteps SmartBuy closing cost offer, buyers must submit initial purchase offers on HomeSteps homes by October 30, 2009 and complete the closing by December 31, 2009. “Every home shopper should know there are only 30 days left to save potentially thousands of dollars in transaction costs when they buy a HomeSteps home,” said Chris Bowden, vice president of HomeSteps. “Combined with our offer to provide a comprehensive two-year warranty on unexpected repairs, we believe HomeSteps homes provide a tremendous long-term value in today’s competitive marketplace.” Full Details
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Mortgage Bankers: End Fannie and Freddie
The Mortgage Bankers Association is urging the U.S. government to replace Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac with private companies.
The Obama administration is considering a couple of options, including shutting them down or merging them into another federal agency.
The mortgage bankers would replace Fannie and Freddie with federally regulated private companies that would buy loans, sell them as bonds with their own guarantee, and pay the government for reinsurance.
Jaret Seiberg, an analyst at Washington Research Group, said in a research note that the “odds are high for enactment” for the Mortgage Bankers Association’s proposal because this would create a practical way to keep mortgage rates low.
Source: The Associated Press, Alan Zibel (09/02/2009)
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NAHB Applauds GSE Adjustments of Appraisal Guidelines
The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) is pleased with one underwriting guideline adjustment made last week by government sponsored enterprise, Freddie Mac.
Freddie Mac’s Bulletin 2009-18 announced several changes to the GSE’s underwriting guidelines. The changes deal mainly with the documentation required for income and asset verification, make “condominium hotel” loans ineligible for purchase, and eliminated Form 70A, Energy Addendum as a required attachment to appraisals.
More notably, Freddie Mac made several “Best Practices” recommendations for selecting appraisers and reviewing their products. One of these contained the statement that Freddie does not require appraisers to use Real Estate Owned, foreclosures or short sales in selecting comparable sales but rather that appraisers must “certify that comparable sales chosen are those most similar to the subject property.” These should include distressed sales if they are representative, something many industry professionals have been requesting since the Home Valuation Code of Conduct was enacted on May 1, 2009.
In a press release on Monday, NAHB Chairman Joe Robson said that this was “a step in the right direction,” but that this modification needed to go further. He called for additional changes that would allow appraisers the option of expanding both the geographic area and the time frame for comps in cases where local and recent contracts are heavily skewed toward distressed sales. Full story...
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Freddie Mac gets another $6.1B from government
NEW YORK — Battered mortgage giant Freddie Mac received $6.1 billion in new funds from the Treasury Department to help offset its mounting liabilities, according to a regulatory filing submitted Wednesday.
The company could also be close to naming a new, permanent CEO, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.
The Federal Housing Finance Agency, which has been operating Freddie Mac since last fall, requested the funds for Freddie Mac after the mortgage firm’s liabilities exceeded its assets by more than $6 billion, according to the filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
After drawing the funds, Freddie Mac has now received $51.7 billion from the Treasury Department and still has access to an additional $149.3 billion to help it finance operations. Full Story.
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Freddie Mac gets another $6.1B from government
By STEPHEN BERNARD
Associated Press
NEW YORK — Battered mortgage giant Freddie Mac received $6.1 billion in new funds from the Treasury Department to help offset its mounting liabilities, according to a regulatory filing submitted Wednesday.
The company could also be close to naming a new, permanent CEO, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.
The Federal [...]
Mortgage Update: Jumbos Remain Elusive
At a time when some mortgage products are showing signs of life, jumbo mortgages are hard to get and expensive, making it difficult for many would-be move-up buyers to take action. What to do?
Since the credit crunch hit about two years ago, many lenders have all but abandoned jumbos, which are too big for secondary [...]
Mortgage Rates Continue to Fall
Freddie Mac reports a drop in the 30-year fixed mortgage rate to 4.82 percent during the week ended May 21 from 4.86 percent the prior week. Meanwhile, the 15-year fixed mortgage rate dipped to 4.5 percent.
The Federal Reserve is working to hold down rates by purchasing upwards of $1.25 trillion in mortgage-backed securities and $300 billion in Treasuries. Mortgage rate premiums have declined substantially over the last couple of months even as Treasury yields climbed.
Source: Investor’s Business Daily (05/22/09)
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Freddie Mac’s refinance policy drawing fire.
Brokers, small lenders say they are being cut out of Obama’s plan
WASHINGTON – Mortgage brokers and small lenders say they’ve been left out of a big part of the Obama administration’s plan to help borrowers refinance their home loans and take advantage of near record-low interest rates.
The new guidelines released earlier this month are different for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-controlled companies that own or guarantee almost 31 million mortgages — more than half of all U.S home loans. Most strikingly, mortgage loans held by Freddie Mac can only be refinanced by the company that currently collects payments on the loan, known as the mortgage servicer. Full Article.
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Housing fix leans on troubled firms.
NEW YORK(CNNMoney.com) — Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac won’t be leaving the federal government’s nest anytime soon.
President Obama is leaning heavily on the teetering mortgage finance titans to help stabilize the housing market, even as it pumps hundreds of billions of dollars into them to keep them afloat.
As the housing crisis deepens, the question of the companies’ long-term future has been set aside.
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