A look at stories across HousingWire’s weekend desk…with more coverage to come on bigger issues:

The mortgage finance industry is preparing for the Conference on the Future of Housing Finance, to commence Tuesday at 9 a.m. Eastern Time. Housing starts data is also slated for a Tuesday release, at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time.

On Friday, Fannie Mae issued a Selling Guide Announcement, which clarifies that lenders are not required to obtain a second credit report just before closing a loan under the Undisclosed Liability Policy in the government sponsored enterprise's Loan Quality Initiative.

Fannie Mae instead urges lenders to have processes in place to facilitate borrower disclosure in the event their financial services change throughout the origination process. Lenders will only be required to re-underwrite a loan if a borrower’s debt-to-income (DTI) ratio exceeds 45% or increases 3 percentage points or more.

"This is an important update, because every mortgage loan delivered to Fannie Mae has to be underwritten to establish that the borrower is able to repay the debt," said Deborah Slade-Horsey, vice president for Single-Family Risk Policy at Fannie Mae. "Our primary objectives are to support borrowers' ability to sustain homeownership and to strike a reasonable balance between requirements that may reduce loan repurchases and requirements that might over-burden lenders' origination processes."

Ginnie Mae high-coupons swaps surged by between $0-16 to $0-20 compared to their Fannie Mae counterparts, according to a strategy report released Friday by Credit-Suisse. Analysts said this follows public concerns about government auto-refinancing risk and is counterintuitive to common prediction.

“This is totally counterintuitive given that the [Federal Housing Administration] has more room to spur refis by simply bringing its streamlined refi program in line with [government sponsored enterprise] [Housing affordable Refinance Program] guidelines.”

The report also found Ginnie Mae 30-year gross increased to $31.4bn in July from $15.2bn in June. Net issuances fell to $15.2bn in July from $18.3bn in June. Ginnie Mae share of agency fixed-rate issuances grew modestly to 36% in July compared to 35% last month. This compares with 30% run rate in Q110 and the 29% share in 2009. Credit-Suisse predicts that Ginnie Mae share of supply will decline in the coming months due to the expiration of the housing tax-credit.

Ginnie Mae collateralized mortgage obligations (CMO) accounted for 44% or $10.3bn out of $23.5bn total agency CMO issuances in July. This is down from 47% or $10.7bn in June. Ginnie CMOs accounted for 50% of agency CMO issuance in Q110.

Home prices in England fell 1.7% month-over-month in August to an average asking price of £232,241 ($360,936) from £236,332, according to Rightmove’s House Price Index released Monday. This is the biggest reduction in asking prices the firm measured so far this year, yet prices are 4.3% higher than prices one year ago.

The firm, an online property valuation service provider, attributes the monthly drop to the combination of over-supply in the market and the holiday season. Rightmove reported that August and December are the two months of the year that traditionally see price falls.

“No one really wants to come to market in August unless they have to,” said Miles Shipside, director of Rightmove. “It shows these new sellers have a compelling need to sell, as they have lopped over £4,000 off the average asking price.”

Home prices in London saw a 4.1% drop to a reported $629,638 from $656,358 in July. Rightmove said this is the largest reported drop in London home prices since August 2008 and follows last month’s fall of 1.7%; however, prices are up 4.6% from August 2009.

“It shows these new sellers have a compelling need to sell, as they have lopped over £17,000  off the average asking price,” said Shipside. “Unless their property is a bit of a rarity, the only cards left are the ones that read ‘chop the price’ or ‘spruce up the presentation’.”

Home prices in London are currently at the level they were in January of this year.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) reported only one bank failure Friday.

The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation – Division of Banking closed Palos Bank and Trust Company. As of June 30 the bank, based out of Palos, Ill., held approximately $493.4m in total assets and $67.8m in deposits that will be assumed by First Midwest Bank.

Deposits will continue to be insured by the FDIC regardless of the bank name. The FDIC said it is not necessary for Palos customers to change banks.

Write to Christine Ricciardi.