Tag Archives: FHFA

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) proposed last week a rule to establish new housing goals for 2015 through 2017 for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. For single-family housing goals for 2015 through 2017, FHFA requests comment on three alternative approaches regarding prospective benchmarks for low and very low-income families.

A report filed last week by the Office of Inspector General (OIG) of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) states that Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae ignored "red flags" with regards to a mortgage fraud scheme perpetrated by lenders Taylor, Bean & Whitaker and Colonial Bank. In addition to the losses absorbed by Freddie Mac (almost $2 billion) and Ginnie Mae (almost $1 billion), private banks that conducted business with Taylor Bean lost billions.

FHFA's seasonally adjusted House Price Index rose 0.4 percent on a monthly basis in June, matching May's rate of growth. The agency also included quarterly comparisons in its June index, finding that home prices were up only 0.8 percent from the first quarter to the second—the first time quarterly price growth has been below 1 percent since early 2012.

Goldman Sachs has agreed to pay $3.15 billion to settle a lawsuit filed by the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) over faulty RMBS. Under the terms of the settlement, Goldman Sachs will pay $2.15 billion to Freddie Mac and about $1 billion to Fannie Mae to buy back the alleged faulty RMBS the two GSEs purchased between 2005 and 2007. FHFA estimates the worth of the settlement to be about $1.2 billion due to the bonds' current value.

The total number of mortgage refinances in the United States experienced a slight increase in June, though activity for the quarter was down overall. The agency also reported a drop in refinances done through the government's Home Affordable Refinance Program, which accounted for an estimated 15.7 percent of refinances completed through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Following the filing of a separate suit with the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, New York-based hedge fund Pershing Square Capital Management has filed a second suit against the U.S. government over the handling of GSE profits. In its compliant, Pershing Square suggests that the GSE dividends being diverted into Treasury, which amount to billions of dollars, should be divided among the common shareholders for the GSEs.

As the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) mulls over a proposed increase in guarantee fees, a new report from the Urban Institute (UI) suggests the agency faces a more difficult task than one might assume. In a commentary released Thursday, UI authors Laurie Goodman, Ellie Seidman, Jim Parrott, and Jun Zhu say that, based on their modeling, g-fee determination "is an art, not a science—and more like a Jackson Pollock than a da Vinci."

In the first step of what is planned to be a multi-year effort, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) has put out a request for industry input on the development of a common mortgage-backed security (MBS) designed to be issued and guaranteed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac.

The S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices, released Tuesday, showed house prices gained 9.3 percent across 20 of the country's biggest cities, down substantially from the 10.8 percent increase recorded for April and the slowest growth rate since February 2013. Economists had expected an increase of 9.9 percent for May.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency's (FHFA) monthly House Price Index (HPI) increased 0.4 percent in May from April, the agency reported Tuesday. Seasonally adjusted price changes from April to May ranged widely across the nine census divisions, from a low of -0.7 percent in the East South Central area to +1.1 percent in the West South Central division.