Tag Archives: Fannie Mae

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac combined to complete 65,960 foreclosure prevention actions in Q1 this year, bringing the total of such actions up to almost 3. 5 million between the two GSEs since September 2008 when the conservatorships began, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA)'s Q1 2015 Foreclosure Prevention Report released on Tuesday.

Fannie Mae reported positive net worth of $3.7 billion as of the end of 2014, slightly more than half of which ($1.9 billion) represented a dividend obligation to the Department of Treasury that was paid on March 31, 2015. Fannie Mae's net income for 2014 of $14.2 billion was only a fraction of the $84 billion the GSE reported for 2013, according to FHFA.

Also in 2014, FHFA and the GSEs reviewed and made enhancements to requirements for foreclosure alternatives, forbearance plans, and rate-reset notifications. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac announced in July the expansion of home retention solutions for Standard and Streamlined modifications, enabling eligible borrowers with mark-to-market LTV ratios below 80 percent to obtain a loan modification.

According to the survey, of the three in five Americans that believe the housing crisis is not over, 41 percent believe we are “still in the middle” of the housing crisis, while 20 percent feel “the worst is yet to come.” This is an improvement from 2014 where 70 percent of Americans felt the housing crisis has not passed, while 77 percent felt the same in 2013.

While job growth continues to push meaningful income growth, the outlook for housing market growth is also improving, the GSE says. Of those surveyed, the share of respondents who say home prices will go up in the next 12 months increased to 49 percent, while the share who say home prices will go down dropped to 6 percent.

For the government-sponsored enterprise guaranty rating, Fitch notes that the GSEs as a whole are the primary drivers of this rating’s unconditional guarantee of full and timely payment on the MBS that secures the bonds. Additionally, the performance of the underlying loans or MBS servicer is not factored into the rating on the bonds.

Despite economic growth taking a step backward, the forecast for housing for the rest of the year remains positive, according to Fannie Mae SVP and chief economist Doug Duncan. New home sales increased by 6.8 percent in April up to 517,000 annualized units; the National Association of Realtors' Pending Home Sales Index has risen by 14 percent in the last 12 months; existing home sales are at a nine-year high; and purchase applications recovered at the end of May from a slow first half of the month up near a two-year high.

Holtz-Eakin, former director of the Congressional Budget Office, wrote on the American Action Forum's blog, "The Daily Dish," earlier this week that logic would dictate large reforms to the housing finance system following the crash, yet no such large reform has taken place.

In its annual report released earlier this week, the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) recommended that the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) continue to encourage Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to spread mortgage credit risk across the private market.

Leading indicators for the housing sector have shown that despite the moderate economic growth predicted, housing may experience a strong season in the spring, according to Fannie Mae. In March, existing home sales rose to their highest level in nearly two years, but for Q1 existing home sales were off slightly from the previous quarter's total. Despite a slowdown in March, new single-family home sales ended the first quarter at their strongest pace in seven years.