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MBA Advocacy Update
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A wintry mix of politics and Mother Nature ground the nation's capital to a halt last week. It began fresh off a statement from Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd, D-Conn., that bipartisan negotiations on a financial regulatory modernization bill in the committee had reached an "impasse."
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Commercial/Multifamily News |
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Article Abstracts |
Top National News |
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U.S. Looks Abroad for Housing Help
Washington Post (02/16/10) P. A1; Schneider, Howard; Cho, David>
The Federal Reserve hopes foreign government funds will snap up the mortgage-backed securities it will begin selling next month, helping to keep interest rates low and the U.S. housing market on track to recovery. Financial analysts doubt, though, that sovereign wealth funds will provide enough relief and that rates subsequently will rise. They believe U.S. economic recovery is tied so closely to a housing rebound that insufficient funding from sovereign wealth funds and other private investors will lead Washington to adopt new policies to hold down mortgage rates.
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Mortgage Industry Grows, But Not in N.Y.
Inman News (02/16/10)>
The mortgage industry expanded by 8,321 jobs across the country in 2009, after losing a net 36,766 jobs in 2008 and 88,817 jobs during 2007, finds a new report from MortgageDaily.com. Mortgage firms hired almost 31,000 professionals last year, including 5,849 in the fourth quarter, but laid off 22,578 people. New York led in layoffs, as 600 sector employees lost their jobs, resulting in a net loss of 500 jobs for its mortgage industry.
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State HFAs Resuming Lending
Inman News (02/16/10)>
The Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority is set to resume writing loans on March 1 after an 18-month lull, due mainly to a $23.5 billion Treasury Department initiative aimed at helping state and local housing finance agencies fund more than 200,000 home purchases. The state HFA is poised to be the first to offer Fannie Mae's new Affordable Advantage mortgage, a low-cost, 30-year fixed loan that offers 100 percent financing to first-time home buyers with sterling credit and requires as little as $1,000 cash upfront.
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Third Agency Will Soon Be Leaderless
American Banker (02/16/10) P. 1; Sloan, Steven
The Federal Housing Finance Agency is unlikely to have a permanent director by August, which could complicate efforts to regulate Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as they face growing pressure for stricter oversight. Regulatory reform also clouds the FHFA's future, as Congress will need to determine how it wants to handle Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac before the agency's top position can be filled. Two other key financial regulatory bodies, the Office of Thrift Supervision and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, face similar leadership issues.
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Mortgage Suit Targets the Street
Wall Street Journal (02/16/10) P. C1; Timiraos, Nick
The Federal Home Loan Bank of Seattle late last year filed a series of 11 lawsuits against Wall Street banks, seeking to force them to buy back problem mortgage-backed securities. The Seattle FHLB alleges that it was duped by underwriters with regard to the quality of $4 billion of securities it bought as investments at the top of the housing boom. It is seeking to force the Wall Street firms to repurchase the securities, plus interest.
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Residential Finance News |
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Retail Sales Improve; Report Warns of House Price 'Double-Dip'
The Census Bureau on Friday reported January retail and food service sales at a healthy 0.5 percent increase. But a quarterly housing report from Zillow.com, Seattle, suggested that some housing markets could experience a house price "double dip" as values decrease.
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The Week Ahead
Last week's snowstorms threw a monkey wrench in Washington, leaving closed offices and canceled hearings on Capitol Hill and throughout the city. With the President's Day holiday recess this week, Congress will not likely reschedule postponed hearings until later this month.
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Analysts Predict More Interest Rate Risks
Kieran Quinn, CMB, vice chairman in the Atlanta office of Walker & Dunlop, forecasts short-term interest rates rising 200 basis points to 400 bps in the next 12 to 24 months.
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DealMaker of the Day
Keystone Property Group, Bala Cynwyd, Pa., completed a $53.5 million refinance--and potentially part of a multiborrower commercial mortgage-backed securities transaction--for Keystone Summit Corporate Park near Pittsburgh, Pa.
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QuoteLink
"While the next few months are likely to bring further home value declines in most markets, we do expect to see a national bottom in home prices by the middle of this year."
--Stan Humphries, chief economist at Zillow.com, Seattle.
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