Posts tagged "Freddie Mac"

Unemployed homeowners with loans guaranteed by Fannie and Freddie could now be eligible for reduced or suspended mortgage payments for up to a year. The government-controlled mortgage finance companies emphasized that they were doing so at the direction of their regulator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

Starting Feb. 1, Freddie Mac said it will allow companies that collect mortgage payments to give borrowers up to a 12-month break on their mortgages, up from a current level of six months. However, the break, known in the mortgage industry as forbearance, will only be temporary. Borrowers will still owe the payments they have missed.

“These expanded forbearance periods will provide families facing prolonged periods of unemployment with a greater measure of security by giving them more time to find new employment and resolve their delinquencies,” said Tracy Mooney, a Freddie Mac senior vice president. “We believe this will put more families back on track to successful long-term home ownership.”

Freddie Mac didn’t have an estimate available for how many borrowers would qualify

What we all wouldn’t give to be an executive at bankrupt housing agencies Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac?

According to a report released by the Inspector General of the FHFA, a total of $47.8 million was paid to the top ten executives of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac since they were placed into receivership. The top six wunderkinds working at Fannie and Freddie have received compensation of $35 million since they failed, and another ten executives were rewarded with $12.8 million in bonuses.

At the same time Fannie and Freddie are bleeding the taxpayers dry. The busted agencies have received a total of $183 billion in bailout out funds since they failed and the end to future bailouts is no where in sight.

The average rate for a 30-year mortgage dropped below 4% earlier this month for the first time, hitting 3.94%, Freddie Mac reported.

But at the same time, LendingTree (TREE) reported that the average rate offered to borrowers by its network of lenders was about 4.32%.

Only about 9% of LendingTree borrowers got loans below 4%. About a third got loans between 4.5% and 5%.

FICO scores, the industry standard for determining credit risk in mortgages backed by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Housing Administration, largely have been based on a person’s credit history. But in an attempt to develop a more well-rounded picture of a person’s finances beyond credit, tools are being developed to help the lending industry dig deeper. 

Fair Isaac Corp., or FICO, the company behind the widely used scoring formula, and data provider CoreLogic last week announced a collaboration that will result in a separate score that will be available to mortgage lenders and incorporates information that will include payday loans, evictions and child support payments. In the future, information on the status of utility, rent and cellphone payments may also be included.

Separately, last month, the big three credit reporting agencies, Experian, Equifax and TransUnion, began providing estimates of consumer income as a credit report option. And earlier this year, Experian began including data on on-time rental payments in its reports.

As the housing crisis drags on, the government is seeking to ease out of the mortgage business and let the private sector take control. That worries some analysts who don’t want to see any more potential setbacks in a recovery.

It’s a historic day for long-term mortgage rates.  Freddie Mac says the average rate on a 30-year loan has dipped below 4% for the first time on record.

It’s becoming clear that Freddie Mac offered Bank of America a sweetheart deal in a case that suggests not only incompetence, but also something between cronyism and regulatory capture.

The beleaguered housing market will confront the latest hurdle to its recovery: The size of mortgages that the federal government can back will be drastically reduced in high-priced regions.

In a speech before the American Mortgage Conference, Acting Director Edward DeMarco of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), said that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have little chance of emerging from conservatorship.