Daily Dose

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac investors made some careful moves after Monday’s court decision between American International Group (AIG) and the GSEs. The share of the GSE’s stock went up about 9 percent before dropping back down, however, Monday’s ruling may not necessarily mean good news for shareholders, according to multiple media reports.

After awarding $36 million worth of grants to hundreds of national, regional, and local organizations to help families and individuals with their housing needs and to prevent future foreclosures in April, HUD recently awarded an additional $6 million in grants to add to that total, according to a press release.

The U.S. Census Bureau and HUD jointly announced today in a press release new residential construction statistics for May 2015 finding building permits were up, while starts and completions saw slight decreases.

Less than one week after Freddie Mac's Structured Agency Credit Risk (STACR) debt notes received the RMBS Deal of the Year award from Global Capital, Freddie Mac announced the pricing of the fifth STACR offering of 2015 on Monday.

In an effort to inform Congress of the their regulated entities goals, activities, and missions, the Federal Housing Finance Agency's (FHFA) recently released their 2014 Report to Congress, which examines and reports the activities of Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, 12 Federal Home Loan Banks (FHLBanks), and the FHLBanks’ Office of Finance. The agency also reported the goals set forth for the GSEs and FHLBank’s mission and affordable housing programs they offer.

Senior households have been rising slowly over the decades, but this is about to change in the coming years. Urban Institute’s recent analysis of housing trends determined that senior households are expected to grow dramatically by 2030.

The time to purchase a home is now, as lenders are loosening mortgage guidelines and the average down payment decreases. According to a report released today by LendingTree, an online loan marketplace, down payment percentages for conventional 30-year fixed rate purchase mortgages dropped from 17.59 percent in the fourth quarter of 2014 to an average of 16.98 percent for the first quarter of 2015.

Builders are exuding more confidence in the real estate market as more buyers purchase homes with unwavering certainty. According to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI), builder confidence in the market for newly built, single-family homes in June reached a high of 59.

In a piece published as a Fox News Opinion earlier this week, Scott Brown, a Republican Senator for Massachusetts from 2010 to 2013 and Henry Cisneros, a Democrat who served as HUD Secretary from 1993 to 1997 during the Clinton Administration, urged those campaigning for next year's presidential election speak about the housing industry's most pressing issues in their campaigns and address what they call a "silent" housing crisis, since it is "largely overlooked by the media and strangely underestimated by our nation's political leaders

Yesterday, as mortgage rates crept up to 4 percent this week for the first time since November 2014, consumers responded with a decrease of mortgage applications by 9 percent, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) Builder Application Survey (BAS) data for May 2015.