FHFA Eyes HomeSaver Advance Usage

Fannie Mae's use of HomeSaver advances to cure delinquent loans in securitized pools peaked in June and July and two-thirds of the personal loans went to nonprime borrowers, according to a report by the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Fannie launched the HomeSaver program in February and it had made more than 45,000 advances totaling $301 million as of Sept. 30, according to the company's latest financial report. The average size of these unsecured loans is $6,700 and it has helped the mortgage giant fix the loans without purchasing them out of pools and recognizing a loss. From February through August, Fannie made 36,415 HomeSaver advances and 23,177 went to alt-A and subprime borrowers. Fannie made 11,725 advances in June and 10,599 advances in July. Advance activity dropped to 7,914 in August, according to the government-sponsored enterprise regulator.