It’s now believed that the legislation will clear the committee, but Majority Leader Harry Reid will not allow it to move any further because of weak support overall.

Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae issued a combined $67.1 billion of single-family MBS during April, a solid 23.6 percent increase from the previous month, according to a new analysis and ranking by Inside MBS & ABS. Agency MBS issuance has been in a prolonged downward spiral that started after a modest spurt in production in April 2013, when new issuance hit $153.6 billion, well more than double the volume in April of this year. The upside is that the volume of purchase mortgages coming into the agency market continued to build momentum through the peak home-buying season in 2013. The purchase-mortgage sector has become...[Includes two data charts]

The Federal Housing Finance Agency may soon ask for industry feedback on loan-level price adjustments, those annoying charges that result in extra fees being heaped on borrowers because they have FICO scores or downpayments that don’t fall into the category of being “pristine.” Moreover, industry executives, their lobbyists and advisors believe that over the next few months the agency may offer a trade: no increase in guaranty fees in exchange for some tweaking of LLPAs. Industry observers believe...

Over the past 10 days, MBS prices have risen by roughly 50 basis points. Since early April, prices have jumped 150 basis points, based on the Fannie Mae 4s, catching market participants off guard. Joe Farr, director of sales for MBSQuoteline, noted, “The expectation was that everyone thought bond prices would fall.” But it hasn’t turned out that way, even with the Federal Reserve continuing to taper its investment in MBS. The problem in the MBS market continues...

The retained mortgage portfolios of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac continued to decline through attrition during the first quarter of 2014 as the two government-sponsored enterprises reported some $9.3 billion in profit, due largely to non-agency MBS legal settlements. The two GSEs held a combined mortgage-investment portfolio of $902.1 billion at the end of March, down 5.2 percent from the previous quarter. The biggest decline was in MBS holdings, down 7.3 percent, including an 8.3 percent drop in Fannie’s and Freddie’s holdings of their own MBS. Wall Street investment bankers and non-agency MBS issuers paid...[Includes one data chart]

One REIT manager suggested that in time FHFA Director Mel Watt may move to eliminate the captive insurer/FHLB “loophole”…

It seems that GSE officials, to some degree, are trying to manage future expectations, but one thing is certain: guaranty fee income remains very strong.

Fannie Mae reported nice guaranty fee income in first quarter, but as one former GSE executive told us: “Their expenses are out of control.”

Should Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac increase the 25 basis point servicing fee they pay mortgage companies that service their loans? The issue was apparently raised by at least one mortgage executive at a recent advisory board meeting that Fannie held with some of its customers. Two servicing advisors with knowledge of the meeting confirmed the story, but few in the industry believe that any type of increase is being contemplated at this time. One major concern centers...

The Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee is expected to vote on the housing finance reform legislation next week, but there’s a growing consensus among industry observers that no amount of last-minute patchwork compromises will make the bill ready for a prime-time Senate vote. Many observers said last week’s abrupt announcement by Committee Chairman Tim Johnson, D-SD, and Ranking Member Mike Crapo, R-ID, to delay consideration of S. 1217 in order to gain more than the minimum 12 votes needed to clear the committee doomed the chances of getting the bill to the floor for a vote. A banking committee staffer told...