GSEs

The demand for affordable rental properties has long outstripped the supply, with the gap widening as incomes have stagnated, homeownership rates have fallen and rents have soared in recent years. But now, banks are finding a profitable path to helping ease this severe national shortage.

As the mortgage industry begins the New Year, National Mortgage News takes a look at the biggest trends and topics that will shape 2016.

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 is important, but it barely scratches the surface of former House Financial Services Committee Chairman Michael Oxley's impact on banking.

Freddie Mac's Multi-Indicator Market Index in October signaled ever-stabilizing circumstances across a growing number of regions.

Radian Guaranty Inc. is in compliance with the government-sponsored enterprises capital standards after receiving $325 million in cash and securities from parent company Radian Group Inc.

A proposal issued two weeks ago by the FHFA calls on the two government-sponsored enterprises to identify opportunities to increase their purchases of small multifamily properties in rural areas, sparking some concern among lenders.

After lenders and their technology providers spent much of 2015 implementing the TILA-RESPA integrated disclosures, forthcoming compliance audits and a government-sponsored enterprise plan to start collecting data from the new forms will tell if those efforts truly paid off.

Interest rates on fixed-rate mortgages remained largely unchanged this week, according to Freddie Mac.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are telling lenders that they are willing to retain loans with defects if they believe the defects are minor and can be fixed. But Freddie is one-upping Fannie by offering to retain such loans without charging lenders a fee.

Arch Mortgage Insurance introduced a new pricing program to better aligns a policy's risk with the amount of the premium. But analysts have expressed concerns about pricing competition.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency appears to be on course to decide next year whether Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac should update their credit scoring models.

Home prices rose in October as the improving job market stirred competition for a dwindling inventory of listings.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency is giving private mortgage insurers some hope this holiday season that they might get a chance to offer deeper mortgage insurance on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac single-family loans.

Some mortgage investors are refusing to buy home loans that are at risk of violations of new consumer-disclosure rules. The problem appears to be worst among nonagency jumbo loans purchased by private investors.

Sen. Bob Corker 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 in a sitdown interview.

Fannie Mae's final risk-sharing transaction of the year was with reinsurers.

Freddie Mac will begin issuing single-family mortgage-backed securities sometime next year via the new common securitization platform, the Federal Housing Finance Agency said Thursday.

Lenders continued to ease loan standards across all types of mortgage products in the fourth quarter and they expect the trend to continue, according to Fannie Mae.

Mortgage rates increased for the second week in a row as the Federal Reserve decided to raise short-term interest rates for the first time in nearly a decade.

A new report from Fannie Mae suggests the millennial generation is getting a move on.