Our Business News

It will be easier to sell homes in short sales under new guidelines now in effect. In a short sale, a home is sold for less than the mortgage amount owed, with the lender’s permission. Short sales have been notoriously slow and complex. The new rules are designed to simplify the process and speed up short sales for loans owned or guaranteed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Sellers Won’t Have to be Delinquent A borrower who can prove a hardship that requires a home sale may qualify for a short sale, even if current on the house payments. These [...]

Merrill Lynch must pay $ 1.34 million to a Florida couple who alleged the brokerage misrepresented the risks of Fannie Mae preferred shares in 2009, when the housing finance company was on the brink of collapse, an arbitration panel ruled on Tuesday. Robert and Michele Billings of Naples, Florida invested $ 2.3 million in Fannie Mae preferred shares in July, 2008, a move that was “strongly recommended” by their broker, according to a statement of claim filed with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s arbitration unit in 2011. The Billings, former owners of a pest control business, were long-time clients of [...]

In an attempt to reduce the government’s role in housing finance, the nation’s regulator for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac announced Friday that it is raising the fees that the two government-seized housing giants charge for guaranteeing credit risk. Edward DeMarco, acting director for the Federal Housing Finance Agency, said the agency has directed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to raise the guarantee fees it charges on single-family mortgages by an average of 10 basis points. The changes to the guarantee fee pricing “represent a step toward encouraging greater participation in the mortgage market by private firms,” said DeMarco. According [...]

The government is changing the terms of its bailout agreement with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in a way that will shrink the holdings of the two mortgage giants more quickly and will require payment to the government of all quarterly profits the companies earn. The Treasury Department announced the changes in an effort to deal with concerns that the companies could at some point exhaust the federal support they were guaranteed when they were taken over by the government in September 2008 during the financial crisis. Under the change, the two firms will have to turn over all profits [...]