Is the White House getting cold feet on administrative reform of Fannie and Freddie? Maybe, maybe not, but it appears the Federal Housing Finance Agency may not release its GSE capital rule until December.
Lenders approve fewer loan applications and apply more conservative underwriting standards in states that impose a judicial foreclosure process, according to new research.
A House committee last week approved a bill that would extend deductions for mortgage insurance premiums through 2020. Meanwhile, the Senate is grappling with how to address various expired tax breaks.
Mortgage Grapevine: Rushmore is buying another origination platform, a sign that mortgage M&A could be on the rise again. Meanwhile, Fannie Mae is offering buyout packages to a select group of employees.
In a speech this week before the annual secondary market conference of the Mortgage Bankers Association, FHFA Director Mark Calabria sounded a little bit like the Mark Calabria of the Cato Institute.
New FHFA Director Mark Calabria singled out GSE "charter creep" as something he would like to eliminate. But he was short on specifics. Still, an FHFA probe of the matter has been launched.
The National Association of Realtors this week picked apart FHFA's plan to recapitalize the GSEs and release them from conservatorship. NAR, by the way, favors a model where the GSEs are morphed into shareholder-owned utilities.