Quote:
Originally Posted by buzzards27
This nonsense about Fannie and Freddie is a diversion from a much greater problem with our banking system. I'm not going to take credit for writting this, GunsNTexas deserves that credit.
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oh bull
Higher Loan-to-Value Ratio; Fannie Mae Eases Refinancing Rules
By Mervyn Rothstein
Published: November 28,
1993
The Federal National Mortgage Association, the country's largest source of home mortgage funds, has revised its policy to make it easier for some homeowners to refinance their mortgages and take advantage of current low interest rates.
The change expands Fannie Mae's mortgage refinancing policy to include home loans with as high as a 95 percent loan-to-value ratio. Previously, refinancing required no more than a 90 percent loan-to-value ratio.
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.NYT 1993....
Fannie Mae Seeks to Ease Home Buying
By KEITH BRADSHER,
Published: March 10,
1994
WASHINGTON, March 9— The organization that stands behind many of the nation's mortgages is taking broad steps to make home ownership easier for lower-income Americans, particularly recent immigrants and minorities, people involved in the effort said today.
Under the new rules, banks would have more flexibility in lending to people who already owe a considerable amount of money or who cannot afford a down payment equal to 20 percent of the price of a home, the people said. Tuesday Announcement.
President Clinton is tentatively scheduled to attend the announcement. The Administration is urging that loans be more broadly available to poor and lower-middle-income Americans.
Fannie Mae Seeks to Ease Home Buying - NYTimes.com
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Giving Credit Where Credit Was Denied - NYTimes.com
Published: June 8,
1997
calls its ''no-doc product'' -- as in no documents needed.
According to Jay Siegel, a vice president at Moody's Investor Service:
''Subprime loans have exploded from $7 billion in 1992 to $37 billion in 1996 as a sector of the entire securitized conventional loan market.'' That $37 billion, Mr. Siegel said, represents 11 percent of all the conventional loans that were securitized in 1996, up from 1.4 percent in 1992.
According to Jay Siegel, a vice president at Moody's Investor Service: ''Subprime loans have exploded from $7 billion in 1992 to $37 billion in 1996 as a sector of the entire securitized conventional loan market.'' That $37 billion, Mr. Siegel said, represents 11 percent of all the conventional loans that were securitized in 1996, up from 1.4 percent in 1992.
The agencies have also,
for the first time, become guarantors of subprime loans. In fact, on May 21, Freddie Mac agreed to guarantee the securitization of $227.3 million in subprime loans originated by the First Union Home Equity Bank. Several industry analysts point out that the trend toward subprime lending has been a boon to the nation's affordable housing movement. ''There are more subprime opportunities that dovetail well with C.R.A.-required lending,'' said Mr. Gumbinger.
C.R.A. is the Community Reinvestment Act, a law passed by Congress in 1977 to combat red-lining -- the systematic policy of banks to avoid making loans in poor communities. The law requires Federally regulated banks and savings and loans, but not mortgage banks, to ''help meet the credit needs of communities in which they are chartered.'' If one of those lenders applies to Federal regulatory agencies for a merger or a new charter, it must demonstrate that it has originated a sufficient number of loans in low- and moderate-income neighborhoods.
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Homeowners Record Is Set in Third Quarter
By STEVEN A. HOLMES
Published: November 1,
1997Independent analysts, as well as those in the Clinton Administration, say that the rising number of homeowners -- including many, like Ms. Crittendon, who are first-time buyers -- is the result of several factors. These include low interest rates, low unemployment, rising incomes, a number of Federal assistance programs, increased competition among mortgage lenders, and better enforcement of fair-housing laws.
''It's not just that it's a strong economy,'' said Andrew M. Cuomo, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. ''It's that people are willing to believe that they'll have a job long term, that their house will appreciate and that their incomes will grow.''
These increases stem in part from rising incomes and lowered unemployment among minorities and single women. The rise is also the result of several policies adopted by the Clinton Administration.
Starting in 1993, for example, Federal regulators, when asked to approve bank mergers, began to include a bank's lending history in low- and moderate-income areas as part of their review.
In 1993, (the Democrat controlled)Congress ordered the two Federally chartered lending companies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, to increase their loans to low- and moderate-income borrowers. In 1995, seeking to save his department from elimination by the newly elected Republican-led Congress, Housing Secretary Henry G. Cisneros adopted a ''national homeownership strategy'' that eased requirements to qualify for Federal Housing Administration-insured loans and reduced closing costs by as much as $1,200 on those loans for first-time buyers.
Homeowners Record Is Set in Third Quarter - NYTimes.com
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Fannie Mae Eases Credit To Aid Mortgage LendingBy STEVEN A. HOLMES
Published: September 30,
1999
WASHINGTON, Sept. 29— In a move that could help increase home ownership rates among minorities and low-income consumers,
the Fannie Mae Corporation is easing the credit requirements on loans that it will purchase from banks and other lenders.
Fannie Mae, the nation's biggest underwriter of home mortgages, has been under increasing pressure from the Clinton Administration to expand mortgage loans among low and moderate income people and felt pressure from stock holders to maintain its phenomenal growth in profits.
In addition, banks, thrift institutions and mortgage companies have been pressing
Fannie Mae to help them make more loans to so-called subprime borrowers. These borrowers whose incomes, credit ratings and savings are not good enough to qualify for conventional loans, can only get loans from finance companies that charge much higher interest rates -- anywhere from three to four percentage points higher than conventional loans.
''Fannie Mae has expanded home ownership for millions of families in the 1990's by reducing down payment requirements,'' said Franklin D. Raines, Fannie Mae's chairman and chief executive officer. ''Yet there remain too many borrowers whose credit is just a notch below what our underwriting has required who have been relegated to paying significantly higher mortgage rates in the so-called subprime market.''
Fannie Mae, the nation's biggest underwriter of home mortgages, does not lend money directly to consumers. Instead, it purchases loans that banks make on what is called the secondary market. By expanding the type of loans that it will buy, Fannie Mae is hoping to spur banks to make more loans to people with less-than-stellar credit ratings.
Fannie Mae officials stress that the new mortgages will be extended to all potential borrowers who can qualify for a mortgage. But they add that the move is intended in part to increase the number of minority and low income home owners who tend to have worse credit ratings than non-Hispanic whites.
Fannie Mae Eases Credit To Aid Mortgage Lending - NYTimes.com
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U.S. Proposes Rules to Help House Buyers
Published: March 5, 2000
WASHINGTON, March 3—
The federal government has proposed new rules that would make it easier for low-income house buyers to qualify for mortgage loans, a move intended to help blacks and other minorities buy houses.
The proposed rules from the Department of Housing and Urban Development
would require two of the largest housing finance companies in the country, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, to increase the percentages of overall loans that they offer to lower-income families from the current standard of 42 percent to 48 percent in 2000 and to 50 percent in 2001.
The companies would be required over the next 10 years to buy $2.4 trillion in mortgages from banks and other lenders to assist the 28 million American families with low and moderate incomes. Many of those families are minorities, housing officials said.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac fall under federal oversight because they receive special exemptions from Congress from all state and local taxes except property taxes and from Securities and Exchange Commission registration requirements.
The requirements for mortgage purchases were last set in 1995. The goals were up for renewal this year, as required by Congress. The housing administration could have lowered the goals or have left them unchanged. After a 60-day public comment period, a final rule is expected in the fall.
U.S. Proposes Rules to Help House Buyers - NYTimes.com
''This rule will greatly expand the supply of affordable housing across the country,''
said Housing Secretary Andrew M. Cuomo.
The companies buy mortgages for homes and apartment buildings from banks, savings and loans and other mortgage lenders, and package and sell the loans to investors. When Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae buy mortgages from lenders, they provide the lenders with cash to issue new mortgages.
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President Clinton, with the blessing of Democrats in Congress, advanced an agenda which they called, The National Homeownership Strategy: Partners in the American Dream. (Do a Web search.) In short, it encouraged mortgage lenders to loosen-up their requirements for those seeking mortgages, thus making home ownership available to those who otherwise wouldn't qualify - in other words, for those who couldn't afford it.
The government, as a result, relaxed requirements for the federal guarantee on those mortgages: lowered income to payment ratio, relaxed income verification, reduced (or eliminated) down payments, etc. Mortgage lenders, as ones who issued those government backed loans, were encouraged - or possibly directed - to follow suit. (I say directed to follow suit because those lenders had to follow government rules if they wanted to continue to be able to issue FHA loans.)
The National Homeownership Strategy: Partners in the American Dream, is a "..... public-private partnership working to dramatically increase homeownership opportunity in America. Under the directive of President Clinton, the Partnership was formed in 1995 by nearly 60 national organizations that care about homeownership. Today, the Partnership consists of 66 members representing lenders, real estate professionals, home builders, nonprofit housing providers, and federal, state and local governments.
HUD Secretary Andrew Cuomo said: "The good news as we mark National Homeownership Week is that homeownership in America is at record levels. But the bad news we face is that many of HUD's homeownership and other programs are under attack by some members of Congress. The success of our homeownership initiatives proves that HUD in combination with local organizations can further our goal of even more homeownership and fulfill our commitment to liberty and equity for all."
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