Freddie Mac, the nation’s second-largest government-sponsored enterprise, said Thursday that it lost a record $2.45 billion, or $3.97/share, during the fourth quarter of 2007. The loss pushed the GSE to a $3.1 billion net loss, $5.37/share, for the full year. “Today’s economy represents one of the most severe housing downturns in American history,” said Freddie [...]

A key Democrat in Congress is planning to introduce legislation in the next few weeks that would engage the Federal government in directly bailing out troubled homeowners unable to afford their current mortgages. The plan will clearly set up a showdown with Bush administration officials that have so far strongly favored a private-sector resolution to [...]

The past few days have seen wide coverage of a groundbreaking settlement involving New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s office and both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, that would see both of the GSEs retool their approach to appraisals by ditching the use of in-house appraisals and brokered appraisal networks. The Wall Street Journal first reported [...]

In a 10-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission filed on Thursday, ultra-prime mortgage lender Thornburg Mortgage Inc. said that it has been hit with margin calls on roughly $2.9 billion of Alt-A mortgage-backed securities held in its portfolio. The hit came as the company faced what it called a “sudden adverse change in [...]

It’s not official yet, but it looks like New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo may be close to taking the first, in what will hopefully be a series of much needed steps, to fix the systemic issues plaguing the appraisal industry. Ever since he announced that the state of New York was suing Washington Mutual and [...]

Mortgage application activity continued to plunge this week as rising interest rates tanked refi application volume, according to data released Wednesday by the Mortgage Bankers Association. The MBA’s seasonally-adjusted index, which tracks both purchase and refinance application activity, fell 19.2 percent for the week ended Feb. 22, to 665.1. One week earlier, the index stood at [...]

In a move that may set a precendent elsewhere, Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley’s Office said Wednesday that it had obtained a preliminary injunction in a case against California-based Fremont General and Fremont Investment and Loan. The order prohibits Fremont from initiating or advancing foreclosures on a wide range of loans, including loans financed at [...]

On the heels of an S&P report affirming MBIA’s AAA insurer rating, and giving a similar stamp of approval to Ambac, HW’s received more than a few emails questioning the stress test used to give both monolines a top grade. One reader noted in an email to us: Net net, the model doesn’t seem to indicate any [...]

New home sales fell more than expected during January as buyers stayed away in droves from a U.S. housing market in the midst of a historic downturn. click for larger view Sales fell 2.8 percent to a seasonally-adjusted rate of 588,000, compared to a 605,000 revised rate for December, the Commerce Department said Wednesday. According to Bloomberg, economists [...]

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two largest financiers for the U.S. mortgage market, will see their portfolio growth caps removed as of March 1, 2008. According to a statement released Wednesday by the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, which regulates both GSEs and had imposed the portfolio restrictions in response to massive accounting [...]