Category: News and Trends

Bill Emerson, chairman of the Mortgage Bankers Association and CEO of Quicken Loans Inc., Detroit, issued the following statement regarding inclusion of the Jumpstart GSE reform provision within a $1.1 trillion year-end spending bill passed by Congress, which would prevent the administration from selling off its stake in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac without congressional approval. 

The Federal Housing Finance Agency reported Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac completed 54,744 foreclosure prevention actions in the third quarter, bringing total foreclosure prevention actions to just under 3.6 million since the start of the conservatorships in September 2008. 

Commercial and multifamily mortgage debt outstanding continued to climb in the third quarter, driven by increases in the dollar amount of loans held in bank portfolios according to MBA’s Commercial/Multifamily Real Estate Mortgage Debt Outstanding report.

Fannie Mae, Washington, D.C., said mortgage lenders continue to report that they have eased and expect to continue easing their credit standards in the coming year.

HOPE NOW said its members provided 109,000 mortgage assistance actions in October, down slightly from September.

CoreLogic, Irvine, Calif., said 256,000 properties regained equity in the third quarter, bringing the total number of mortgaged residential properties with equity at the end of the quarter to 46.3 million, or 92.0 percent of all homes with an outstanding mortgage.

Continued strong new issuance and active specially serviced loan resolutions led to another decline in the commercial mortgage-backed securities delinquency rate last month, reported Fitch Ratings, New York.

With mortgage rates still low and housing inventory scarce, some people in the housing industry are starting to use the “b-word” again.  

Fitch Ratings, New York, said robust advances in U.S. starts and new home sales should enable public home builders to report meaningfully higher revenues, on average, in the coming year.

CoreLogic, Irvine, Calif., said the U.S. foreclosure inventory in October fell by 27.1 percent from a year ago, while completed foreclosures fell by 21.5 percent over the same period.