GSEs

After 10 years of conservatorship, the new year could finally usher in big steps toward housing finance reform.

Liquidity, products and pricing are the main concerns for the secondary mortgage market in 2019.

The House Financial Services Committee held a hearing to examine the outgoing committee chairman's bipartisan GSE reform bill, but lawmakers were already looking ahead.

A year ago, National Mortgage News made five predictions regarding how the mortgage industry would fare in 2018 — and we got four of them right.

Home retention actions from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac through the first three quarters of 2018 already eclipsed 2016 and 2017 while forfeitures kept declining, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

The process to confirm Mark Calabria as FHFA director could be lengthy, forcing the White House to consider how it will proceed with housing finance reform under Joseph Otting as acting head of the agency.

For hedge funds that have been hoping the Trump administration would deliver a windfall on their investments in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, 2019 could be a make-or-break year.

The White House said that Comptroller of the Currency Joseph Otting will serve as acting director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency beginning Jan. 6, after Director Mel Watt’s term ends.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency has proposed barring Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from using credit scores developed by VantageScore over concern about conflicts of interest with the joint venture of Equifax, Experian and TransUnion.

Mortgage applications to purchase newly constructed homes continues to decline, driven by affordability concerns among potential buyers, the Mortgage Bankers Association said.

Texas Capital Bank, which already provides warehouse financing for e-mortgages, will now purchase these loans off those lines as it looks to increase liquidity for this product.

Mortgage lenders are more pessimistic than ever about the industry's profit margin outlook, with many blaming tight competition for the negative attitudes, according to Fannie Mae.

The White House confirmed that it plans to nominate Mark Calabria as the next director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac charged lenders slightly lower guarantee fees in 2017 for mortgages with riskier characteristics, according to a Federal Housing Finance Agency report.

The administration’s reported interest in having the White House aide run Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's regulator signals a focus on constraining the mortgage giants’ role in the housing market.

The government-sponsored enterprises are suspending eviction lockouts for the holiday season.

The gap between supply and demand in the housing market is contributing to affordability constraints that are likely to limit homeownership long-term, according to Freddie Mac.

Mortgage credit available to consumers increased in November by 1.1% from the previous month as lenders offered more conventional products with expanded underwriting criteria, the Mortgage Bankers Association said.

The government-sponsored enterprises sold fewer nonperforming loans in the first half, but the drop-off in the number of sales year-to-year is less severe than it was in 2017 as a whole.

The performance of loans included in commercial mortgage-backed securities improved for the fifth consecutive quarter, with delinquencies down 179 basis points over the time frame, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.