Posts with tag GSE

WASHINGTON -- Congress is seeking to end the practice of paying million-dollar bonuses to executives at government-controlled mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The House Financial Services Committee approved legislation Tuesday that would suspend tens of millions in Fannie and Freddie executive compensation... Continue Reading »

WASHINGTON -- Fannie Mae missed chances to catch law firms illegally signing foreclosure documents and its government overseer did not take the right steps to ensure Fannie was doing its job, according to a federal watchdog. The Federal Housing Finance Agency's inspector general said in a report Friday that Fannie... Continue Reading »

Freddie Mac is squeezing lenders tighter this spring, and that means higher fees will be passed on to homebuyers. The government-sponsored mortgage-finance company stated in a memo last week that it will raise upfront fees to lenders on riskier home loans, including those for homebuyers with lower credit ratings and... Continue Reading »

Buried in the arcane pages of many homebuyers' contracts is a hidden fee with an equally esoteric name: private transfer fee covenants. Essentially, these cryptic addenda, which are still legal in more than 30 states, require payment to a third party every time the property changes hands. On average, these fees can average... Continue Reading »

The big takeaway from today's "Future of Housing Finance" conference at the U.S. Department of Treasury was that everybody agreed to agree – more or less. It was a given that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will be put into retirement, eventually. As Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said in his introductory remarks,... Continue Reading »