Freddie Mac

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.