Government

The House Financial Services Committee has announced that proposed legislation to cap the salaries of CEOs at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac has advanced to the markup phase, which will take place in the Committee on Tuesday, July 28.

On Friday, a federal appeals court revived a lawsuit that challenged the constitutionality of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. According to multiple media reports, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that a Texas bank had legal standing to proceed with a lawsuit arguing the structure of the CFPB is unconstitutional.

In June, new single-family home sales dropped below the rate in May, but remain strong on a year-over-year basis, according to HUD and the U.S. Census Bureau's joint release of their June New Residential Sales data on Friday.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau recently announced that Meredith Fuchs will serve as acting deputy director following Deputy Director Steve Antonakes' announcement last week to depart from the agency.

The U.S. government has filed an opposition to Bank of America's appeal to dismiss a $1.27 billion penalty in a mortgage fraud case, according to media reports. Bank of America was ordered to pay a $1.27 billion civil penalty by Judge Jed Rakoff of the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of New York in July 2014 as a result of the bank's alleged role in selling toxic mortgage-backed securities to Fannie Mae andFreddie Mac before the crisis.

Refinance volume dropped lower in May 2015, but remained above levels recorded in 2014, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency's (FHFA) May 2015 Refinance Report. The report also found that mortgage rates increased in May, with the average interest rate on a 30 year fixed-rate mortgage reaching 3.84 percent.

Under department's 2015 Fair Housing Initiatives Program Notice of Funding Availability, HUD outlined in a grant notice on Thursday that it is making $39.2 million available to fight housing discrimination. This year’s funding notice will also create six new types of grants that support fair housing capacity building, education, and outreach activities, as well as testing in rental and sales transactions.

New low down payment initiatives extend homeownership opportunities to qualified borrowers who might otherwise be locked out. According to Freddie Mac's July U.S. Housing Market Insight & Outlook, pre-crisis low payment underwriting allowed layered risk, while post-crisis low payment underwriting controls credit risk by requiring features that reduce risk. Pre-crisis payments were variable, while post-crisis payments are predictable.

A ruling in the Federal Claims Court on Tuesday made by Judge Margaret Sweeney will force the U.S. Treasury to disclose all of Fannie Mae’s and Freddie Mac’s conservatorship documents. Over 10,000 discovery documents will be released to the United States District Court of Appeals in Washington D.C. and the United States District Court. Fairholme Funds made the request in court against the GSEs, claiming that their investor ownership stake was taken unlawfully from them by the government when the conservatorship occurred. Fairholme's efforts are a step toward getting their ownership stake returned to them.

After years of post-crisis credit tightening, the availability of mortgage credit has slowly edged up from Q3 2013 to Q1 2015. The Urban Institute’s Housing Finance Policy Center reported that 4.6 percent of purchase loans that are likely to default increased to 5.7 percent, according to the Housing Credit Availability Index.