Freddie Launches Broker Training Program to Boost REO Sales. Freddie Mac announced this week it has launched a new program to train real estate agents how to better move real estate-owned homes through its HomeSteps sales unit. Freddie’s new Certified Community Stabilization Expert program is an eight-hour online course developed by San Diego-based Community Asset Solutions to teach the latest lessons for selling REO homes, according to Chris Bowden, senior vice president, HomeSteps. The CCSE program curriculum is designed to help real estate professionals “work more effectively with nonprofits and local governments, take advantage of public initiatives for maintaining properties and create new outreach efforts for owner-occupant buyers, especially low- and moderate-income homebuyers,” said Bowden.

A significant but continued decline in GSE refinance activity helped contribute to an overall dip in the volume of single-family mortgages securitized by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in October, according to a new Inside The GSEs analysis. Fannie and Freddie issued $67.7 billion in single-family mortgage-backed securities in October, a 13.8 percent decline from September but a 2.9 percent rise for the first 10 months of 2013. Deliveries of refinance loans to Fannie and Freddie have declined steadily since January.

So far this year, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have resolved some $30.99 billion of buyback demands through a combination of loan repurchases and indemnifications for the GSEs’ losses, nearly double the $15.66 billion in resolutions recorded during the first nine months of 2012, according to an analysis by Inside Mortgage Trends, an affiliated publication. The figures refer to the unpaid principal balance of loans subject to a repurchase demand, not the actual payment by the lender. Fannie and Freddie reported a combined $3.53 billion of mortgage repurchases and other buyback resolutions during the third quarter of 2013, the lowest quarterly amount in three years.

Retail mortgage-production units accounted for 63.0 percent of new originations during the third quarter of 2013, according to a new analysis and ranking by Inside Mortgage Finance. That was up slightly from a 62.8 percent retail share of new production during the second quarter, and it represented one of the highest levels of retail-channel dominance ever. The share of retail originations has soared over the past few years as many major lenders have scaled back their broker and correspondent operations. But all three production channels showed...[Includes four data charts]

A publicly traded real estate investment trust is the buyer of Fannie Mae MSRs offered by CashCall, investment banking sources said.

Private-equity firms such as Pershing Square Capital Management and Fairholme Funds are gobbling up the common and preferred shares of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, a trend that may continue as long as the two stay profitable and Congress dithers with how to end their conservatorships. “There’s some value there,” said Brian Harris, a senior analyst with Moody’s Investors Service. “The hedge funds believe the two will continue to earn money.” Industry observers who closely follow the government-sponsored enterprises predict...

Increasing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac guaranty fees, as well as “incrementally” reducing the government-sponsored enterprises’ loan limits throughout the next decade, would save the government approximately $20 billion, according to the Congressional Budget Office. In a report published last week, the CBO projected the budgetary savings that would occur under two proposals. “By CBO’s projections under current law, the mortgage guaranties that the GSEs issue from 2015 through 2023 will cost the federal government $22 billion,” noted the report. “That estimate reflects the subsidies inherent in the guaranties at the time they are made.” Under one scenario, the average GSE guaranty fee would increase...

Jumbo mortgages have a higher risk of fraud than conforming mortgages, according to a new report from Interthinx.

With refinance volume falling and minimum net-worth requirements heading north, advisors in the mergers-and-acquisitions market say undercapitalized firms should sell now, while they still can. Larry Charbonneau, a principal of Charbonneau & Associates of Texas, said he is currently working on four deals but noted that, “There a lot of shops out there with less than $5 million in capital that need to do something but haven’t realized it yet.” Although Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have net-worth minimums in the $3 million range, there is...

Analysts commenting on the settlement note that while JPM did not admit any violations of law, it acknowledged in a “statement of facts” section that employees did not comply with company underwriting guidelines and representations.