The Federal Housing Finance Agency this week announced that acting Director Joseph Otting authorized Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to release payments to both the National Housing Trust Fund and the Capital Magnet Fund.
The housing-finance reform outline from Senate Banking Committee Chairman Mike Crapo, R-ID, got its first airing on Capitol Hill this week with most witnesses giving it a thumbs up while cautioning the devil is in the details.
Home mortgages that fail one of the basic tests to be classified as a qualified mortgage have become an increasingly large part of the agency market over the past few years, a new Inside Mortgage Finance analysis reveals. [Includes one data chart.]
Joseph Otting’s dual role as acting director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency and head of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency puts him in a position to push hard for changes that will help create a “healthy” non-agency mortgage market, according to the Structured Finance Industry Group.
President Trump earlier this week unleashed his fiscal year 2020 budget on Washington, chockful of implications for Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
At a hearing on Capitol Hill Tuesday, Kathy Kraninger, director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, assured lawmakers that she will not disrupt the mortgage industry by abruptly terminating the so-called GSE patch.
With Mark Calabria’s confirmation as director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency seemingly imminent and the prospect looming of some kind of administrative reform of the government-sponspored enterprises, industry groups are getting anxious.
Higher conforming loan limits for agency mortgage-backed securities programs didn’t do much to offset a sharp decline in total jumbo lending last year, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance ranking and analysis. [Includes three data charts.]