Freddie Mac

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are adopting new guidelines to streamline the process for short sales, which most real estate observers expect will outpace foreclosures in the coming year. The guidelines, required by the Federal Housing Finance Agency and effective June 15, would require servicers of mortgages backed by Freddie and Fannie to review and respond to requests for short sales within 30 calendar days of receipt of a buyer's offer. A short sale is a transaction in which a lender agrees to accept less than the amount owed on the mortgage.

President Obama detailed plans Wednesday to help an estimated 3.5 million homeowners refinance into lower-rate mortgages through the Federal Housing Administration and to turn hundreds of thousands of houses repossessed by lenders into rentals. The president spoke at a news conference in Falls Church, Va., where, he said, property values have declined 25 percent since the housing bubble burst five years ago. Obama, who announced the initiative in his State of the Union address Jan. 24, said the program was designed for "responsible" homeowners who are current in their mortgage payments but are unable to refinance loans at fixed rates as low as 3.8 percent because they owe more than their houses are now worth.

Thirty-year fixed-interest mortgage rates continued to slide this week, falling to 3.84 percent from 3.88 percent last week, Freddie Mac reported Thursday. The 15-year rate was 3.07 percent, down from 3.12 percent last week. "Signs of slowing economic growth and inflation remaining subdued allowed yields on Treasury bonds to ease somewhat and brought most mortgage rates to new all-time record lows this week," said Freddie Mac chief economist Frank Nothaft. — Alan J. Heavens

Second mortgages or deeds of trust are loans secured by a portion of the equity of a home. They are called seconds because they are "junior liens" - that is, in the event of a foreclosure, they are paid off after the first mortgage is paid. For example, suppose, you own a home worth $125,000. Let's say, too, that you've paid your first mortgage down to $50,000. In other words, you have $75,000 worth of equity in your home. You can either let that equity sit untouched, or you can use it as collateral to borrow for the kids' college education, or for a business investment you want to make.

Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae will suspend, from Dec. 19 to Jan. 2, evictions involving foreclosed occupied single family and two- to four-unit properties that had their mortgages. The suspensions will apply only to eviction lockouts related to Freddie- and Fannie-owned properties. During this period, legal and administrative proceedings for evictions may continue, but families living in foreclosed properties will be permitted to remain in their home.    - Alan J. Heavens

Area mortgage lenders are bracing for another flood of mortgage refinancings despite a management ouster at Freddie Mac, a key government-sponsored, mortgage-finance company. Freddie Mac's board of directors ousted the McLean, Va., company's president and chief operating officer Monday, saying they questioned his "cooperation and candor" in an ongoing investigation of accounting irregularities. Two other top executives resigned. "There's been almost no effect" of the controversy on mortgage rates, said Joseph A. Splendido, president of Colonial Mortgage Servicing Co., of Warrington, and a governor of the Mortgage Bankers Association of America.

URBANDALE, Iowa - Rising in polls and receiving greater scrutiny, Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich found himself on the defensive Wednesday over huge payments he received over the last decade from the federally backed mortgage giant Freddie Mac. Gingrich, the former House speaker, said he did not remember exactly how much he was paid. A person familiar with the hiring said it was at least $1.6 million for consulting contracts stretching from 1999 to early 2008. The person spoke on condition of anonymity in order to address a personnel matter.

Action on a Senate bill that critics say will make it more difficult to obtain low-cost financing for home purchases has been delayed until after lawmakers return from their summer recess on Sept. 5. Senate Bill 190 - the Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory Reform Act of 2005, sponsored by U.S. Sen. Chuck Hagel (R., Neb.) - is designed to limit the amount of business Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac can do in the secondary-mortgage market. The two corporations are known as GSEs, or government-sponsored enterprises.

The Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. has changed its rules in an effort to help some homeowners get rid of their private mortgage insurance earlier. The change, which could enable a homeowner to save hundreds of dollars a year, applies to all new and existing mortgages from lenders that resell mortgages to the agency, known as Freddie Mac. When a home buyer puts less than 20 percent down on a house, Freddie Mac requires the borrower to buy mortgage insurance to guarantee payments.

It's not quite like winning the lottery or finding a pot of gold. But for Main Line Federal Savings Bank, it's darned close. Imagine that you have 150,000 shares of stock that almost overnight increase in value by a total of about $11 million. And that you're Main Line Federal and that's more than you've earned over several years. Now imagine that in six months that stock doubles in price, as some predict, more than quadrupling your initial investment. You feel? a.)

The author Michael Lewis was asked on CNBC last week about the widespread notion that blame for the panic of '08 should be laid at the feet of greedy Wall Street executives, and the corollary that some of them should be in jail. Was the crash the result of criminal behavior or cluelessness? Lewis replied that while he is no expert on securities law, in all his reporting on the subject, he never encountered anything that made him think somebody ought to go to jail for it, and maybe that was one problem: The excess and recklessness were legal.

Thirty-year fixed-interest mortgage rates continued to slide this week, falling to 3.84 percent from 3.88 percent last week, Freddie Mac reported Thursday. The 15-year rate was 3.07 percent, down from 3.12 percent last week. "Signs of slowing economic growth and inflation remaining subdued allowed yields on Treasury bonds to ease somewhat and brought most mortgage rates to new all-time record lows this week," said Freddie Mac chief economist Frank Nothaft. — Alan J. Heavens

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are adopting new guidelines to streamline the process for short sales, which most real estate observers expect will outpace foreclosures in the coming year. The guidelines, required by the Federal Housing Finance Agency and effective June 15, would require servicers of mortgages backed by Freddie and Fannie to review and respond to requests for short sales within 30 calendar days of receipt of a buyer's offer. A short sale is a transaction in which a lender agrees to accept less than the amount owed on the mortgage.

The Treasury Department has sold the last portion of $225 billion in mortgage-backed securities purchased primarily from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac when the financial crisis was at its worst in 2008 and 2009. Sales of the securities for $250 billion last week netted the government $25 billion in interest, Treasury reported Monday. Some financial experts said the profit realized could be a sign that efforts to stabilize the mortgage market might not be as expensive as had been predicted in fall 2008.

In the Region FDA OKs new breast implant The Food and Drug Administration had approved a new silicone-gel breast implant from Sientra, the third company to market the products in the United States. Sientra of California won approval to market the implants for women who are at least 22 years old. The company will offer implants in multiple shapes in addition to round implants now sold by Allergan Inc. and Johnson & Johnson's Mentor unit. The FDA has wrestled with the safety of the silicone-gel implants for more than 20 years.

WASHINGTON - The U.S. government regulator for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac must do a better job limiting legal expenses paid by the two mortgage giants to their former executives facing lawsuits, a new watchdog report says. A report issued Wednesday by the inspector general for the Federal Housing Finance Agency says Fannie and Freddie together have paid more than $109 million in legal expenses for former executives since 2004, with Fannie covering more than $99 million for just three top officials.

Politicians, economists, and pundits continue to argue about why U.S. housing prices boomed and busted over the last decade. Some blame federal housing programs, others exotic mortgage-backed derivatives. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are faulted for attempting to make homeowners out of low-income families. Mortgage brokers, real estate agents, and appraisers are said to have pumped up home prices to line their pockets. The Federal Reserve is accused of keeping interest rates too low for too long.

It's 2012, and we're still waiting for the real estate market to show some consistent signs of recovery. The stumbling block, is, of course, the millions of borrowers in one phase or another of financial distress. The Obama administration's record bringing this situation under control is abysmal, a patchwork of initiatives wholly dependent on the goodwill of the lenders and servicers of mortgages. (You can go to the Department of Treasury's website to look at the numbers since 2009 for yourself: http://goo.gl/rpflw )

HARRISBURG - A landmark settlement with the nation's biggest mortgage lenders over foreclosure abuses will deliver about $266 million in aid to the state for struggling homeowners or people who lost their homes, state Attorney General Linda Kelly said yesterday. Pennsylvania and 48 other states joined the $25 billion settlement announced yesterday. The money is supposed to help homeowners facing foreclosure, borrowers who lost their homes and people who owe more than their homes are worth, Kelly said.

President Obama detailed plans Wednesday to help an estimated 3.5 million homeowners refinance into lower-rate mortgages through the Federal Housing Administration and to turn hundreds of thousands of houses repossessed by lenders into rentals. The president spoke at a news conference in Falls Church, Va., where, he said, property values have declined 25 percent since the housing bubble burst five years ago. Obama, who announced the initiative in his State of the Union address Jan. 24, said the program was designed for "responsible" homeowners who are current in their mortgage payments but are unable to refinance loans at fixed rates as low as 3.8 percent because they owe more than their houses are now worth.