Mortgages

As officials prepare plans for the government-sponsored enterprises' exit from conservatorship, there's no shortage of speculation about what those plans might look like and how they might affect the mortgage industry.

The little-known unit was launched in the wake of efforts by the CFPB and HUD to cut back on fair-lending activities, but the reach of the 10-month-old office is still unclear.

Alternative investment manager Pretium plans to buy Deephaven, a residential mortgage-backed securities issuer that operates outside the qualified mortgage market, from Varde Partners.

Cerberus affiliate FirstKey Mortgage will pool outstanding first- and second-lien loans totaling $277.7 million drawn from 1,732 seasoned and performing HELOCs.

There are clear actions that regulators at the CFPB, SEC and FHFA can take to help attract investors into the housing market, argues former FHFA Director Ed DeMarco.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency has appeared willing to take its own steps to reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, but legislation would be necessary to create an explicit guarantee of the mortgage system.

Director Mark Calabria urged lawmakers to grant the agency chartering authority similar to that of bank regulators to boost competition in the mortgage market.

Prepayment speeds for loans included in agency mortgage-backed securities were up approximately 20% both monthly and annually during May as the decline in interest rates boosted activity, according to Keefe, Bruyette & Woods.

The pool of 497 loans includes first-lien fixed- and adjustable-rate mortgages for single-family homes and multifamily properties, primarily underwritten to self-employed borrowers.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin was adamant that the Trump administration won’t just let Fannie and Freddie build up their capital buffers and then release the companies. He also said he backed an explicit government guarantee, something only Congress can do.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency has far more authority to upend the status quo than most realize, according to a new report.

The Mortgage Bankers Association created a template for originators to notify new borrowers when their adjustable-rate mortgage switches to a different index once publication of the London interbank offered rate discontinues.

The company intentionally submitted inaccurate borrower information overstating the number of white applicants, the consumer bureau alleges in a consent order.

Consumers' knowledge of the mortgage process and what it takes to purchase a home has not improved from four years ago and lenders have an opportunity to fill that need, Fannie Mae said.

Commercial and multifamily mortgage lenders need to figure out their plan for replacing the London interbank offered rate index potentially expiring at the end of 2021.

The consolidation of the two companies' securitization platforms into a single bond market became official on Monday.

The nonconforming market is ready to absorb most of the government-sponsored enterprise loans covered by the QM patch, but not all of them, according Redwood Trust.

The launch of a combined securitization platform for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is meant to ease the transition to a new housing finance system. But questions remain about how the mortgage sphere will adapt to the single security.

The large number of overleveraged commercial mortgage-backed securities loans coming due in 2019 is likely to cause the payoff rate to drop an additional 9 percentage points by December, a Morningstar report said.

After years of expansion as a public company, Ellie Mae went private and cut 10% of its workforce. But new ways to grow lie ahead, according to CEO Jonathan Corr.