Category: Top National News

MReport, July 4, 2016–Honea, BrianHaving already fallen below the cap for 2016 only a third of the way through the year, Freddie Mac’s mortgage-related investments portfolio continued to shrink at the annual rate of 27 percent in May.

Wall Street Journal, July 1, 2016–Witkowski, Rachel
The country’s largest banks have dropped almost half of their mortgage servicing since the financial crisis, with some $2.5 trillion in loans largely moving into the shadow banking system, according to a regulatory report.

Wall Street Journal, July 4, 2016–Ensign, Rachel Louise
The jumbo mortgage business keeps getting bigger for banks. These high-dollar home loans rose to 24% of mortgage approvals at six of the largest U.S. banks in 2015 from 21% the year before, according to an analysis of federal home-loan data.

National Mortgage News, July 1, 2016–Wack, Kevin
In the first quarter, 94.9% of the residential mortgages serviced by seven big banks were current and performing, according to a report released Friday by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. That percentage compared to 94.4% in October 2007, when the OCC first reported the data.

MarketWatch, June 30, 2016–Riquier, Andrea
Nearly a decade after the subprime crisis, many neighborhoods are still plagued by undead leftovers from the crash. “Zombie foreclosures” are those that have been begun–but not finished–by lenders. As homes sit empty, they invite vandalism, drag down property values and erode municipal tax bases.

Housing Wire, June 22, 2016–Lane, BenThe fees that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac charge lenders to guarantee mortgage loans actually serve as a tax on consumers and prevent more potential borrowers from becoming actual borrowers, a coalition of the nation’s largest housing groups including the Mortgage Bankers Association said Wednesday.

Wall Street Journal, June 22, 2016–Hayashi, Yuka
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said it found “numerous” mortgage servicers, essentially middlemen between lenders and borrowers, in violation of its 2014 rules requiring them to maintain accurate records.

Bloomberg, June 22, 2016–Light, JoePresident Obama’s former point man on housing-finance reform Michael Stegman is taking a job with a think tank that has sought to play a major role in shaping rules for a world without mortgage guarantors Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac–at least in their current form.

HousingWire, June 21, 2016–Lane, Ben
Last week, Fannie Mae unexpectedly announced a delay to the latest update to its Desktop Underwriter program. On Tuesday, it announced the implementation of Desktop Underwriter Version 10.0 is now scheduled for the week of Sept. 24.

HousingWire, June 21, 2016–Lane, Ben
Freddie Mac announced Tuesday that it agreed to sell more than $700 million in delinquent loans off of its books to a series of private investors, with one familiar buyer snapping up much of the offering.