The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) released its February 2013 Refinance Report, which shows that refinance volumes remained high as mortgage rates hovered near historic low levels. More than 463,000 refinances took place in February, with 97,738 completed through the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP).Click to continue

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) has announced that it is directing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to limit their future mortgage acquisitions to loans that meet the requirements for a qualified mortgage (QM), including those that meet the special or temporary qualified mortgage definition, and loans that are exempt from the “ability-to-repay” requirements under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.Click to continue

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) released reports prepared by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac on their multifamily businesses. The reports were conducted at the direction of FHFA pursuant to its goal of contracting Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s overall market footprint and generating potential value for taxpayers.Click to continue

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) issued a progress report on steps being taken to establish a Common Securitization Infrastructure for residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS). The update reflects feedback from a broad cross-section of industry participants following FHFA’s issuance last October of a white paper entitled “Building a New Infrastructure for the Secondary Mortgage Market.” The white paper sets forth a proposal for both a new securitization platform and a model contractual and disclosure framework.Click to continue

As part of its suite of XetusOne Loan Management Platform applications, Xetus announced the availability of a Subordination Management Platform that enables lenders to transform a traditionally paper-intensive, error-ridden experience into an automated, streamlined, collaborative process. The competitive advantage is even more apparent in light of the recent announcement by the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) to extend the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP) through 2015 for borrowers of GSE loans.Click to continue

Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Acting Director Edward J. DeMarco announced the promotion of Fred C. Graham to be Deputy Director of the Division of Federal Home Loan Bank Regulation. Graham will oversee the regulation and supervision of the Federal Home Loan Banks. Graham has been with FHFA since it was established in 2008 and has held several senior positions with the agency.Click to continue

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) has directed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to extend the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP) by two years to December 31, 2015. The program was set to expire Dec. 31, 2013.

“More than 2 million homeowners have refinanced through HARP, proving it a useful tool for reducing risk,” said FHFA Acting Director Edward J. DeMarco. “We are extending the program so more underwater borrowers can benefit from lower interest rates.”Click to continue

New York Gov. Andrew M.Click to continue

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) released its January 2013 Refinance Report, which shows that refinance volume remained high through the first month of this year. There were nearly 470,000 refinances in January, with roughly 97,600 completed through the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP). This brings total HARP refinances to more than 2.2 million since the program’s inception in April 2009.

Also in the January 2013 report:

►Borrowers in January with loan-to-value ratios greater than 105 percent accounted for 47 percent of the HARP refinance volume.Click to continue

National Mortgage Professional Magazine has taken the opportunity to focus on one of the industry’s top players in its “Mortgage Professional of the Month” feature. This month, we had a chance to speak with David Wind, Founder, CEO and Chairman of the Board for Guaranteed Home Mortgage Company, an expanding mortgage banker based in White Plains, N.Y.Click to continue