SIFMA said the Ginnie-like market structure proposed by FHFA isn’t appropriate for conventional MBS. Moreover, the plan doesn’t address the continued misalignment of MBS issued by Fannie and Freddie.
Affordable housing advocates say a high concentration of ownership by private equity firms makes residents of manufactured home communities vulnerable to unsustainable increases in rent or maintenance fees.
One of the key jobs of the Financial Stability Oversight Council is to make suggestions and recommendations to regulators to avoid SIFI designations, the FHFA director said.
Policy changes impacting 15% of GDP in an election year are inherently risky, according to Isaac Boltansky of Compass Point. The result, he said, is likely to be “a long and winding road” toward housing-finance reform.
The GSEs’ loan performance data excludes various loan types, such as ARMs and low-documentation loans, that performed poorly in the financial crisis. Nearly half of the GSE loans originated in 2006 and 2007 are expurgated from the data provided to CRT investors.
The Supreme Court will not hear arguments in Collins v. Mnuchin in its current session, but the issue of the constitutionality of the single-director status of the FHFA is still alive. That’s because oral arguments in Seila Law v. CFPB, a case addressing similar issues, are scheduled for early March.
The bulk of Fannie Mae’s and Freddie Mac’s prevention actions were aimed at home retention, with 20,370 loans modified, repayment plans negotiated on 5,965 delinquent loans and 3,328 units receiving some sort of forbearance.
Because it controls the senior class of stock in Fannie and Freddie, the Treasury is in the driver’s seat on recap and release. Former Freddie CEO Layton weighs the government’s options, using AIG as a blueprint.