Although traditional underwriting can adequately predict and price for the risk of default on individual mortgages, large pools are subject to risks from unobserved correlations between those loans.

During a confirmation hearing last week, Trump’s nominee to head FHFA was noncommittal in response to questions about GSE reform, a hint that the administration has other priorities.

The government watchdog said federal agencies associated with housing finance have met three of five critical criteria for mitigating the risk they pose to taxpayers.

The annual increase in conforming loan limits creates a natural experiment for economists to examine how competition from nonbanks influences the operations of depositories.

To this point, identifying loans for voluntary partial cancellation has been done manually.

For the seventh quarter in a row, the Des Moines bank was the most profitable.

HUD has no oversight authority over the GSEs, but it looks as though the HUD secretary will have a seat at the restructuring table.

Overall FHLBank borrowing was down 4.8% from the third quarter, but most of that decline was concentrated among the largest members. Year over year, though, outstanding advances fell 16.8%. (Includes two data tables.)

Although little is known about Pulte’s policy positions, his housing and philanthropic background have helped him win the support of most industry trade groups and many consumer advocacy organizations.

Would exiting conservatorship expose Fannie and Freddie to more or less risk from political meddling?