GSEs

The end of one-party rule in Washington could move the needle on efforts to devise a new housing finance framework.

A U.S. regulator's plan to boost capital in the mortgage-finance giants won't work unless investors get "compensated" for the billions of dollars the government has collected from the companies in recent years, one shareholder said.

Borrowers buying new homes produced fewer loan applications than they did a year earlier due to October's rising interest rates.

Fannie Mae completed 10 traditional and front-end credit risk insurance transactions during 2018, sharing $2.6 billion of risk, including $192 million in its final deal of the year.

Borrowers will get more leeway to finance energy- and water-efficient improvements under a new program coming from Freddie Mac.

The revised blueprint by Moelis & Co. LLC incorporates a pending regulatory capital plan for the mortgage giants.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency is leaving the government-sponsored enterprises' multifamily caps for 2019 unchanged at $35 billion per agency, but is making other changes to prerequisites for excluded loans.

The amount of mortgage credit available to consumers increased to a post-crisis high in October in reaction to more first-time homebuyers entering the market, the Mortgage Bankers Association said.

The unique approach Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are each taking with their credit-risk transfer products is quickly becoming a key point of differentiation that's rekindling competition between the government-sponsored enterprises.

Laurel Davis, VP, credit risk transfer at Fannie Mae, explains why the switch to a REMIC structure for CAS is important, and why it took so long.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac transferred a substantial amount of credit risk to the private sector through both single-family and multifamily market transactions in the first half of the year, with activity expected to rise in 2019, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

When the mortgage giant will be released from government control is anyone's guess, but the company's third-quarter report shows signs of an easier transition.

Fannie Mae has priced more securities that support a transition away from the London interbank offered rate.

In a move designed to improve access to financial products for consumers with low credit scores and short credit histories, Experian, FICO and Finicity are developing an "UltraFICO" score that lets individuals share checking and savings account data and help lenders better assess risk.

Incenter Mortgage Advisors is facilitating the sale of $3.7 billion in mortgage servicing rights tied to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans, roughly one-third of which have private mortgage insurance.

Donald Layton, who has run the mortgage giant since 2012, discussed the busy agenda leading up to his departure and says Freddie can serve as a "technical adviser" in GSE reform talks.

Increasing pessimism about housing is driving Fannie Mae's estimates for originations this year down a little further.

MGIC Investment Corp.'s quarterly earnings were again driven by better-than-expected loss development, and those favorable results should be seen in the other private mortgage insurers' results as well, an industry analyst said.

Exploration and adoption of new technologies is essential for achieving strategic goals and satisfying the needs and expectations of mortgage borrowers.

The departing CEOs of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac oversaw significant cultural and operational shifts that made the housing finance system safer and more responsive to market needs, but a tough job lies ahead for their successors.