However, FHFA made it clear the agency is not cancelling the new fee, which it says is intended to help Fannie and Freddie defray the costs associated with COVID-19 relief. The agency says those actions have conservatively cost the enterprises $6 billion...
Apartment dwellers must be given the “flexibility” to repay back rent over time. However, the new guidance shouldn’t be interpreted by tenants as a get-out-of-jail-free card. As FHFA Director Mark Calabria put it: “If tenants are able to pay their rent, they should continue to do so.”
In the announcement extending the policy, FHFA Director Mark Calabria offered a defense of the stiff surcharges, saying, “Lenders have a responsibility to ensure that borrowers can make their monthly payment.”
The added cost associated with servicing a mortgage in forbearance gives servicers an incentive “not to follow the mandates of the CARES Act and implementing guidance,” investigators said.
Fannie, Freddie and Ginnie issued a combined $742 billion of single-family MBS in the second quarter, smashing a record set back in 2003, the mother lode for mortgage business.