Freddie Mac says it will purchase up to $1 billion in tax-exempt mortgage revenue bonds so that housing finance agencies in Louisiana and Mississippi can provide below-market rate mortgages and home repair loans to victims of hurricanes Katrina and Rita."We are committed to buy these MRBs at below-market rates so that as many as 10,000 low-income families affected by the disasters can rebuild their homes at the lowest rates available," said Freddie chairman and chief executive Richard Syron. The government-sponsored enterprise has been an investor in mortgage revenue bonds for some time. Freddie held $9.1 billion in MRBs in its $652.9 billion investment portfolio at the end of 2004. Rep. Richard Baker, R-La., a long-time GSE critic, welcomed Freddie's initiative to facilitate low-cost housing loans for storm victims. "Freddie Mac's announcement will certainly help," the Louisiana congressman said. Freddie Mac can be found online at http://www.freddiemac.com.
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Ohio-based Liberty Home Mortgage joins several companies who started using a more modernized FICO credit score for nonconforming mortgage originations recently.
4h ago -
The CFPB has dissolved the Office of Supervision, Enforcement and Fair Lending and eliminated the job of associate director in a move that impacts how it designates nonbanks for supervision.
5h ago -
The plan that the Federal Housing Finance Agency floated calls for Freddie Mac to actively invest in some new closed-end seconds as cash-out refinancing subsides.
8h ago -
The push comes amid what one expert highlighted as lax funding efforts for two Department of Housing and Urban Development grant programs.
9h ago -
Conventional lending drove volumes higher, particularly in the purchase market, the Mortgage Bankers Association said.
April 17 -
Net charge-offs at the Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank increased by more than 80% in the first quarter compared with a year earlier. BofA executives say that the rising losses were in line with the bank's risk appetite.
April 16