Two Ohio pension funds have filed suit in federal court against the Federal Housing Finance Agency to overturn a recent Finance Agency rule that could curtail any award for damages the funds might someday receive in their securities fraud suit against Fannie Mae. In papers filed in the U.S. District Court, District of Columbia, lawyers for the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System and the State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio disputed a final rule issued…

Mortgage lending to finance home purchases increased a hefty 32.2 percent from the first quarter to the second quarter of 2011, helping to offset a huge drop in refinance activity. Housing sales jumped 43.6 percent during the second quarter, although the housing market in 2011 is still considerably slower than it was a year ago. Conditions looked better in the second quarter largely because the first quarter of 2011 was one of the worst on record for housing sales and home-purchase lending. Fewer than 1 million new and existing home sales were reported during the first quarter of 2011, yielding a record low of just... [Includes two data charts]

Even as industry observers agree that the White House’s announced attempt to improve refinance efficiency through an expansion of the Home Affordable Refinance Program is worthwhile, there remain too many unknowns at the moment to judge how effective a HARP makeover will be. As part of his much anticipated speech before a joint session of Congress last week, President Obama noted his administration’s intent to help homeowners. “To help responsible homeowners, we’re going to work with federal housing agencies to help more people refinance their mortgages at interest rates that are now near 4 percent,” said Obama. “That’s a step that can...

The Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee may not be moving any closer to a decision on reforming the mortgage finance system, but lawmakers should be getting well versed in the various analytic perspectives on the role of the federal government. At a hearing this week, the committee heard testimony from researchers who support winding down Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as soon as possible and others who say private capital won’t be drawn back into the system unless there is a government guarantee. “There’s absolutely no reason to believe that private capital would immediately step-up – even if it would eventually...

The Federal Housing Finance Agency’s legal action late last week against many of the nation’s largest financial institutions on the grounds they misled Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac about the quality of subprime and Alt A MBS purchased by the government-sponsored enterprises has few positives but plenty of negative potential consequences for the market, experts say. The 17 separate lawsuits filed by the FHFA seek unspecified damages on $196 billion in mortgage securities the two GSEs purchased, mostly between 2005 and 2008. The agency conducted extensive loan-level reviews that allegedly revealed widespread discrepancies between... [Includes two pages of data]

Private investors in agency MBS could lose $13 billion to $15 billion from a new government effort to help current Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and FHA borrowers refinance, according to a new Congressional Budget Office staff working paper. The Obama administration is expected to announce a revved-up refinance program as part of a new strategy to strengthen economic growth. A “stylized” refinance program analyzed by the CBO would have a relatively small impact on the overall economy, the analysts said. The biggest impact would be on private MBS investors and the estimated 2.9 million households that would likely be brought into the...

Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae produced a total of $84.25 billion of new single-family MBS during August, a sturdy 19.8 percent jump from the previous month, according to a new analysis and ranking by Inside MBS & ABS. Although there was a brief bump higher in production in June, agency MBS issuance has generally been sliding lower since the end of 2010. The decline has corresponded to reduced production of refinance mortgages, which accounted for just 55.1 percent of new originations in the second quarter, down from 67.1 percent for all of last year. New data suggest the refi market is still struggling. Some 63.5 percent of...

Losses on re-performing FHA/VA mortgage pools are expected to rise as servicers cut back on the claims they submit to the Department of Housing and Urban Development and pass on to mortgage securitization trusts instead, according to a recent analysis by Moody’s Investors Service. With FHA experiencing increasing losses in its portfolio, HUD is scrutinizing claims more vigorously for servicing or underwriting defects, which may serve as a basis for denying claims on re-performing FHA/VA pools. Servicers are also required to bring the property to an acceptable conveyance condition. Furthermore, HUD imposes very strict timeline guidelines that FHA servicers must follow. Given the recent servicing irregularities and staffing constraints due to rising defaults, servicers may not always ...

As part of a new jobs and economic growth plan to be announced this week, the White House is expected to include a bid to invigorate a mortgage refinance effort that has failed to live up to expectations. Most observers think the Obama administration will opt for targeted changes to the Home Affordable Refinance Program. In a speech last week, Federal Reserve Board Governor Elizabeth Duke said HARP has been only marginally effective despite Fed estimates that as many as 4 million borrowers meet HARP’s basic eligibility requirements. Through the end of June, some 830,552 borrowers had refinanced their home loans under HARP, which allows... [Includes one data chart]

Despite a continuing glut of distressed properties in the housing market, investors have started dialing back their purchase activity. And the primary reason appears to be a shifting business model that is forcing investors – at least for the time being – to rent rather than flip properties. That’s one of the major findings of the latest Campbell/Inside Mortgage Finance HousingPulse Tracking Survey, which found that the investor share of home purchase transactions slipped to 19.6 percent in July. That was not only down from 21.3 percent in June but also the lowest investor market share recorded in a year. The inability of most investors to...