Fannie Mae

The financial services industry has cheered a proposed reduction in the corporate tax rate, but a lower rate could force Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to write down assets, increasing the odds that the companies will need Treasury support.

New Residential Investment Corp. is planning to purchase Shellpoint Partners in the first half of next year for $190 million with an additional earn-out over the next three years.

Conforming loan limits for mortgages bought by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will increase for the second consecutive year in response to the rapid rise in home prices, the Federal Housing Finance Agency said.

The Show Me State passed legislation enabling residential and commercial PACE financing in 2010; however, Renovate America only started funding assessments through the Missouri Clean Energy District three months ago, in August 2017.

That’s an about-face from the bank’s previous transaction, completed in October, which was backed by fixed-rate mortgages, nearly half of which were underwritten to standards for purchase by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac.

Mark Calabria, the chief economic adviser to Vice President Mike Pence, said the administration is focused for now on more pressing issues than GSE reform, including addressing housing damage from recent hurricanes.

Called Structured Agency Credit Risk Securitized Participation Interests, the new securities are backed by mortgage loans, and are not general obligations of the government-sponsored enterprise.

Many of the prime jumbo loans backing the transaction, JP Morgan 2017-4, were contributed by originators with limited history in that product, according to DBRS.

Though FHFA Director Mel Watt stopped short of saying he would break with a Treasury agreement that forces all profits of the GSEs to go to the government, he emphasized that it couldn’t continue indefinitely.

The majority of borrowers impacted by Hurricane Harvey have a significant amount of equity, while many in Hurricane Irma disaster areas have limited or negative equity, according to Black Knight Financial Services.

Mortgage investors want Freddie Mac to align its policy with Fannie Mae's when it comes to how delinquencies related to Hurricane Harvey affect credit risk transfer deals.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will adjust their risk-sharing deals so that they can accommodate high loan-to-value loans refinanced under the programs replacing the Home Affordable Refinance Program.

The gulf between those at the upper ends of the wealth ladder and lower-income Americans has worsened markedly since the financial crisis, despite the trillions of subsidies that taxpayers provide for housing.

Dividend payments by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are due to come one day after the U.S. is estimated to hit the debt ceiling, raising the stakes in the debate over whether those payments should continue.

Credit risk transfers have emerged as more than just a method for mitigating taxpayer exposure. They could be a key component of comprehensive housing finance reform.

The government-sponsored enterprise is still looking for the right balance between offering a product that's attractive to investors and a cost-effective way to reduce risk.

The Federal Reserve was not an economic buyer; it accumulated its vast holdings of mortgage bonds for policy reasons; Fannie Mae's chief economist, Douglas Duncan, looks at who might step up, and at what yield.

The government-sponsored enterprises transferred $5.5 billion of credit risk on $174 billion of mortgages in their portfolios during the first quarter.

Rather than working with large-scale investors, Freddie Mac said it will focus on assisting community organizations and local institutions to fund single-family properties for renters with special needs.

Property Assessed Clean Energy loans can no longer be offered in unincorporated areas of Kern County, Calif. The controversial loans, meant to promote energy efficiency, began in California and are now offered in a number of states.