Posts with tag fhfa

By Paul Ausick We have two data points on the U.S. housing market this morning. The National Association of Realtors reports that the seasonally adjusted annual rate of existing home sales in November rose 5.9 percent to 5.04 million from a downwardly revised total of 4.76 million in October. Sales are up 14.5 percent... Continue Reading »

Fannie Mae waded further into the foreclosure pool on Monday as it released new details on its plan to sell its repossessed homes as rental properties. The pilot program, first announced in August as an effort to clear the mortgage giant's backlog of foreclosures, is launching with an initial offering of 2,490 residential... Continue Reading »

WASHINGTON -- The government regulator for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac has submitted a plan to Congress that would shrink the mortgage giants' roles in the housing market. The Federal Housing Finance Agency's proposal for a leaner Fannie and Freddie was released Tuesday and would mean fewer mortgages are backed by the... Continue Reading »

With an estimated 3.6 million more foreclosures expected over the next two years, the government-backed mortgage giants have a proposition for you: How'd you like to take a couple (hundred) homes off their hands? In a recently announced program, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which regulates the quasi-government... Continue Reading »

SAN FRANCISCO -- California's attorney general filed lawsuits against mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac on Tuesday, demanding that the companies that own some 60 percent of the state's mortgages respond to questions in a state investigation. Attorney General Kamala Harris, whose office filed the lawsuits in San... 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 »

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 »

While everyone discusses the likelihood that Fannie and Freddie were duped into buying subprime mortgages that didn't meet their investing criteria, we may finally get a definitive answer when banks answer the 64 subpoenas issued this week by the Federal Housing Finance Agency. The agency didn't release the names of the... Continue Reading »

Greedy appraisers, who put lofty valuations on properties to please lenders and line their pockets, played a large role in the housing bubble. And the fallout continues: On Jan. 29, a former Beverly Hills real estate appraiser was sentenced to three years in federal prison for her role in a multimillion-dollar scheme to... Continue Reading »