Congress and the White House late this week appeared on the verge of accomplishing the seemingly unreachable goal of enacting sweeping new mortgage legislation that will expand the FHA and significantly change the government’s relationship to Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Home Loan Banks. On a 272-152 vote, the House approved an revised version of the omnibus housing legislation that...
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Wells Fargo ranked as the top mortgage producer in the country at the midway point in 2008 as industry-wide origination activity dropped 10.4 percent, according to a new market analysis and ranking by Inside Mortgage Finance. An estimated $430.0 billion of new single-family mortgages were originated during the second quarter, the lowest production volume... [Includes two charts and one graph]
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The Mortgage Bankers Association this week announced that its top staff officer, Jonathan Kempner, will leave the trade group at the end of 2008, making way for a former industry executive to take over the reins during a time of ongoing turmoil in the mortgage market. The MBA, which recently moved into new corporate headquarters, faces significant financial challenges from a...
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The single-family FHA mortgage program, which all but vanished in the boom times of subprime and Alt A lending, is experiencing a huge surge in popularity in 2008. In fact, FHA lending was the fastest growing sector of the mortgage market in the second quarter of this year, according to new numbers compiled by Inside Mortgage Finance.A detailed explanation of why FHA volume is... [Includes one chart]
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The Federal Reserve last week made great strides to help a crippled mortgage market move in the right direction when it approved new rules on mortgage lending and advertising, industry experts say, but many observers think further changes may be in the wings. In final revisions to Regulation Z that implement the Home Ownership and Equity Protection Act, the Fed weighed some 4,700...
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Five years after promising to do so, Freddie Mac last week completed its registration under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, now subjecting the government-sponsored enterprise to the law’s reporting requirements, joining rival Fannie Mae and the 12 Federal Home Loan Banks. The registration means Freddie will disclose direct financial obligations and off-balance sheet...
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Non-agency mortgage securitization is a shadow of itself this year, causing problems for many lenders previously reliant on the originate-to-sell model. The American Securitization Forum last week issued a proposal to boost the non-agency MBS market, but the effort relies heavily on previously non-disclosed information from lenders.The ASF’s proposed Project on Residential Securitization...
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The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is looking to unload assets from IndyMac Bank by the beginning of October, including a mortgage servicing portfolio of $200.7 billion – the eighth largest servicing business in the industry. While the federal regulator grapples with troubled loans in the portfolio and continues to operate IndyMac’s reverse mortgage unit, a sale of many of the lender’s retail...
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