Loan Think

The ‘Private Sector’ and the Secondary Mortgage Market: What a Joke

It’s another new quarter and another guarantee fee hike (of 10 basis points)  courtesy of the industry’s ‘friends’ at the Federal Housing Finance Agency. In announcing this new tax on home ownership FHFA chief Ed DeMarco noted the hike will move GSE pricing “closer to the level one might expect to see if the mortgage credit risk was borne solely by provide capital.” Private capital? If he’s talking about the mortgage market, the only private capital buying loans in the secondary market today is Redwood Trust, a publicly traded REIT that is (just about) the only firm to issue jumbo MBS the past three years. Have I mentioned that Redwood feels like the Maytag repairman? It is all alone while “private capital” stiffs around the mortgage business, too scared to enter. Let it be said as Labor Day approaches: Without Uncle Sam there would be NO mortgage market. None. Zippo. And here’s a little political secret: Republican and Democrat mortgage bankers don’t want Uncle Sam to get out of this business at all. They like it just the way it is. Of course, there are a few exceptions…

Processing Content

 


For reprint and licensing requests for this article, click here.
Originations Secondary markets Law and regulation
MORE FROM NATIONAL MORTGAGE NEWS
Load More