Secondary markets

On Aug. 14, over 30% of the loans sent to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from each company were scored using VantageScore 4.0.

So far, annual home lending growth is on track to slow, but not stop, with some positive developments surfacing amid broader challenges.

Jon Oksenholt, who holds more of Freddie's shares, recently took issue with a Pershing Square assessment of the two government-sponsored enterprises.

Homeowners won't trade in their cheap mortgages so lenders keep finding other ways to reach that equity. Bond buyers keep showing up.

The company's affiliate has been issuing non-QM deals that include a small percentage of second liens, some of which also involve alternative documentation.

Lenders reported July declines of HECM endorsements and new securities issuances, but proprietary lending drove a 28% year-over-year surge in originations.

The real-estate investment trust affiliate has been focusing on making more funding available for new loans but also seeks to hold the line on credit quality.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are under directives to make mortgage-backed securities purchases that can exert downward pressure on rates or limit increases.

Positive changes in credit provisions contributed to a multiyear high in net income as the GSE and its rival fought to purchase lenders' single-family loans.

The Congressional Budget Office's latest read on loan and guarantee costs points to the risks and value of government-sponsored enterprises in conservatorship.

So far this year, the volume of closed-end second and home equity line of credit securitizations is near last year's $29 billion, Bank of America Securities said.

Economists at the government-sponsored enterprise have been lowering their single-family origination volume estimates for several months.

However, for the second quarter, increased home purchase mortgage activity contributed to an industry-wide 11% increase in agency securitizations, BTIG said.

OceanFirst Financial worked with an asset manager to apply the structure to a $1.5 billion portfolio of residential mortgages.

Recent signals indicate this could be on the horizon and potentially add new value to a Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac stock offering, a Seeking Alpha analyst wrote.

The portfolio for sale contains hundreds of millions of dollars worth of reperforming loans that the government-sponsored enterprise co-marketed with Citigroup.

The move may have been related to the government-sponsored enterprise's duration gap but could also have resulted from many other considerations.

Rithm and UWM Holdings are the favorite names among publicly traded lenders, while BTIG adds coverage of Better Home & Finance at a buy rating.

The government-sponsored enterprise has provided language that servicers may utilize in situations involving temporary interest-rate buydowns.

The government-related market's push has intensified efforts to draw up classic FICO comparisons or set up interim rating policies pending more data.