GSEs

When Barack Obama leaves office on Jan. 20, Democratic appointees across the government are expected to follow him out the door, to be replaced by officials chosen by Donald Trump. Not Mel Watt — he isn't planning to go anywhere.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will replace the expiring Home Affordable Mortgage Program with a new loss mitigation option called the Flex Modification.

It is going take some time before it comes to fruition, but the Federal Housing Finance Agency got the ball rolling Tuesday on pushing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to begin purchasing manufactured housing loans.

One step the government can take to strengthening housing is to create a unified office dedicated to housing finance and policy, streamlining and making more efficient existing agencies and programs.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency finalized a rule Tuesday that will create a "duty to serve" for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to help low- and moderate- income consumers, including encouraging a secondary market for manufactured housing loans.

When Donald Trump announced his choice for Treasury secretary last month, he called Steven Mnuchin a "world-class financier," citing business successes like his profitable turnaround of a California bank.

SoFi Lending Corp.'s securitization of its student loan refis for high net worth individuals is now a model for its recent expansion into super prime jumbo mortgages.

Many consumers without traditional credit scores have nearly identical risk profiles to those who can be assessed the conventional way, representing an untapped market, according to a report by VantageScore.

Rising mortgage interest rates affect the volume of refinance and purchase originations, but don't necessarily spell bad news for home prices, explains Fannie Mae Chief Economist Doug Duncan.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will again halt evictions nationwide for foreclosed properties during the holiday season.