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Inside Mortgage Finance

September 21, 2007

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FHA Modernization Effort Shifts to Higher Gear as House Approves Hefty Boost in Eligible Loan Size

Efforts to overhaul the FHA mortgage insurance program are getting a major boost from political pressure on the government to address widespread problems in the subprime market, as FHA reform legislation gained momentum on Capitol Hill this week. The House... Read More

Portfolio Lending Likely to Increase Sharply; Securitization Dominated First Half of 2007

Commercial banks and thrifts built up their retained portfolios of home mortgages only modestly in the first half of 2007, but the crash in secondary market options for nonconforming loans suggests that portfolio lending could rebound in the... [Includes two charts] Read More

OFHEO Tweaks Methods for Restraining Portfolio Growth at the GSEs But Provides Little Extra Room

The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight this week made several modest adjustments to the regulatory restraints on the retained portfolios of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, but still kept both government-sponsored enterprises on very short leashes... Read More

Fannie, Freddie Meet All Affordable Housing Goals That Continue to Pose Relatively Modest Challenge

Lending credence to the view that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac don’t really have to stretch much to meet their affordable housing goals, the latest numbers from the Department of Housing and Urban Development show most of the government-sponsored enterprises’... Read More

Fed Pins Increase of Rate-Spread Loans on HMDA Formula Which Relies on the Yield-Curve

More mortgages were classified as rate-spread loans – a rough proxy for subprime mortgages – in 2006 because of rising short-term interest rates and changing market conditions, according to a Federal Reserve Board analysis of Home... [Includes one chart] Read More

Refinance Market Remained Strong Through Early 2007; Countrywide Tops Lender Charts

Homeowners continued to use mortgage financing as a key financial management tool during the first half of 2007, with 54.3 percent of new lending attributable to refi activity. While the volume of new purchase-money mortgages dropped... [Includes two charts] Read More

Lenders Welcome Federal Funding for Foreclosure Prevention But Reject Schumer’s Call for Private Matching Contributions

Mortgage lenders lauded the Senate Appropriations Committee for approving a funding bill with $200 million earmarked for foreclosure prevention efforts and, at the same time, rejected suggestions by a key lawmaker that the industry should be making a matching... Read More

Loss Mitigation Efforts in Full Blast, Servicers Report, Even as GSE Predicts Inevitable Shift to Short Sale

Mortgage servicers are employing a variety of loss mitigation techniques with varying degrees of success to help troubled borrowers stay in their homes and enable investors to minimize losses. But worsening market conditions are... [Includes one chart] Read More

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