The Lede

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.

National Mortgage News, Dec. 18, 2015--Finkle, Victoria Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., championed a provision he added to the budget bill that would temporarily prevent the Treasury Department from recapitalizing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and discussed other banking priorities.

Mortgage Professional America, Dec. 18, 2015--da Rosa, Justin It remains to be seen how refinance activity will react to the increase in rates; increases that have already been implemented by most big banks.

Daily Herald (Chicago), Dec. 18, 2015--Harney, Kenneth R. Here's some housing cheer for the end of the year: The stock market may have taken your 401(k) and other funds on scary rides in 2015, but new data from the Federal Reserve suggest that if you've owned a house, you've probably seen steady, if not spectacular, growth in your home equity.

World Property Journal, Dec. 16, 2015 The Mortgage Bankers Association's Quarterly Mortgage Bankers Performance Report said independent mortgage banks and mortgage subsidiaries of chartered banks reported a net gain of $1,238 on each loan they originated in the third quarter, down from a reported gain of $1,522 per loan in the second quarter.

HousingWire, Dec. 16, 2015--Gaffney, Jacob The Federal Housing Finance Agency, conservator to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, released the third-quarter Foreclosure Prevention Report, showing an increase in foreclosure starts.

HousingWire, Dec. 16, 2015--Swanson, Brena Now that over two months have passed since the TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclose rule went into effect, the initial impact is starting to show in the closing data, according to the latest Origination Insight Report by Ellie Mae.

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.