Economy

The Mortgage Bankers Association and Housing Policy Council are asking for the Federal Housing Finance Agency to make government-sponsored enterprise data available as part of the establishment of its new Office of Technology.

However, the benchmark 10-year Treasury has been above 4% on a sustained basis for most of the prior week, gaining 18 bps, an indication of future increases for home loans.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency's tangible capital rule could prevent some banks from accessing advances from the Federal Home Loan Bank system in a rising interest rate environment.

The agency is currently using upper ceilings set in the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008.

Four national housing market experts presented their economic and residential outlooks Thursday in a panel at the National Association of Real Estate Editors conference in Atlanta.

Consumer and business confidence is already under immense pressure from the rising cost of living, at the same time that equity, bond and real estate prices are falling.

Following the Consumer Price Index release, the 10-year Treasury yield broke through 4%, making continued increases likely.

Rising interest rates could force some community banks to fall below a critical capital threshold that the Federal Housing Finance Agency uses to determine eligibility for Home Loan bank advances.

And rising rates caused the government-sponsored enterprise to cut its forecast for this year.

Dozens of community bankers and housing experts offered their opinions on the Federal Home Loan Bank System, the first review in nearly 100 years. But the insurers, nonbanks and megabanks that use the system the most were largely absent from the debate.