Category: Top National News

Scotsman Guide, Dec. 15, 2015–Whitman, Victor
Commericial and multifamily debt rose in the third quarter with three out of the four investor classes increasing holdings, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported.

National Mortgage News, Dec. 15, 2015–Berry, Kate
Fannie Mae will retain some home loans that have defects but are still considered to be within their risk appetite. Fannie’s so-called repurchase alternative would give mortgage lenders an exit strategy for some defective loans that fall short of Fannie’s guidelines but are still expected to perform well over their lifetimes. In the past year, Fannie has been testing options for alternatives by working with lenders and asking for their input. Fannie also got input from a lender working group with the Mortgage Bankers Association.

National Mortgage News, Dec. 15, 2015–Blackwell, Rob; Collins, Brian
The Federal Housing Finance Agency unveiled a new proposal Tuesday that would detail how Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac should serve three underserved markets: manufactured housing, affordable housing preservation and rural markets.

HousingWire, Dec. 18, 2015–Lane, Ben
Nearly all of the mortgage servicers that are subject to the terms of the National Mortgage Settlement achieved complete compliance with the NMS’s servicing rules in the first half of 2015, according to a new report from Joseph Smith, the Monitor of the National Mortgage Settlement.

National Mortgage News, Dec. 21, 2015–Berry, Kate
While servicers are still dealing with high levels of problem loans in their portfolios, they are hopeful that rising rates will slow the outflow of loans they lose when borrowers refinance.

Washington Post, Dec. 21, 2015
Politics makes strange bedfellows; when you mix politics with money, it makes for unholy alliances. Case in point: the push by Wall Street hedge funds and low-income-housing advocates to “recapitalize and release” Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the collapsed public-private mortgage-finance giants, which were nursed back to profitability with the help of $188 billion in taxpayer funds.

American Banker, Dec. 21, 2015–Berry, Kate
New consumer-disclosure requirements are doing more than delaying the closings of some home loans. Now the mortgage industry is sounding a bigger alarm, claiming some investors are refusing to buy certain loans once they close because of potential compliance failures. The bottleneck is happening when lenders immediately try to sell loans in the secondary market. The fear is that some lenders could get stuck with loans if investors refuse to buy them, causing potential liquidity problems, especially for independent mortgage banks.

New York Times, Dec. 11, 2015–Prevost, Lisa
For buyers willing to take on the role of landlord, multifamily properties can be one of the more affordable ways into pricey housing markets.

National Mortgage News, Dec. 11, 2015–Peters, Andy
Securitizations that involve commercial mortgages are increasingly dropping loans from their pools before the final transactions close, according to Fitch Ratings.

New York Times, Dec. 10, 2015–Moyer, Liz
Morgan Stanley will pay $225 million to settle lawsuits related to its sale of faulty mortgage-backed securities to five now-defunct corporate credit unions.