Daily Dose

Freddie Mac's net income for the first quarter of 2015 totaled $524 million, nearly double the total of a profitable but somewhat slow fourth quarter, according to Freddie Mac's Q1 2015 Financial Report released Tuesday morning. It marked the 14th consecutive quarter of profitability for Freddie Mac.

According to a study released by Zillow, low income and rising home values have made homeownership unaffordable and unattainable for the country’s lowest paid workers. Over the past two years, one-third of Americans have not been able to afford homes due to low wages. As the housing market recovered, incomes did not.

Since 2012, all GSE profits have been swept into Treasury. The GSEs each have a capital buffer of $1.8 billion, but it is required to be reduced by $600 million per year until it reaches zero by 2018. The Enterprises would require another draw on Treasury should their losses exceed their capital buffer.

Lenders' share of mortgage purchase volume increased for the first time in 2015, jumping 5 percent according to the latest Origination Insight Report released by Ellie Mae, a leading provider of on-demand software solutions and services for the residential mortgage industry. The report found that purchases represented 46 percent of lenders’ overall volume in March, compared to 53 percent in mortgage refinancing volume.

Freddie Mac will be reporting its financial results for the first quarter of 2015 on Tuesday, May 5, according to an announcement from the GSE. The results will be announced before the U.S. financial markets open via a conference call at 9 a.m. Eastern time on Tuesday, May 5.

Financial conditions are improving in the Southern United States, according to a report released by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). The report, which details the performance of national banks and federal savings associations (FSAs), showed that nine states in the OCC’s Southern District showed improvement in 2014. Those states included Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas.

The number of loan servicing, escrow, and payment-related complaints has been relatively stable with the volume of current inventory over the two-year period of 2013 and 2014. As of the end of 2014, the number of such complaints averaged less than one per every 10,000 current loans (0.77).

This week, Freddie Mac released the results of its Quarterly Refinance Analysis for the first quarter of this year, revealing that borrowers lowered their monthly mortgage payment and shortened their long-term payment by taking advantage unexpectedly low mortgage rates. Refinance activity accounted for 63 percent of all single-family originations.

HSBC Bank has asked the Court of Appeals in White Plains, New York, to consider reviving a 2012 lawsuit against Deutsche Bank Structured Products Inc. The 2012 claim alleged that Deutsche misrepresented the quality of residential mortgages it sold to investors in 2006.

Six federal financial regulatory agencies Thursday issued minimum requirements for state registration and supervision of entities that provide appraisal management services to lenders, underwriters, and other principals in the secondary mortgage market.