d*2 发帖数: 2053 | 1 http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=avAvJacs7Uc
By Dawn Kopecki and Jody Shenn
June 19 (Bloomberg) -- Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac may get permission to
begin refinancing mortgages with loan-to-value ratios above 105 percent as
the Obama administration seeks to boost participation in its anti-
foreclosure programs.
“We’re actively considering how to structure a program that makes sense
over 105 percent,” Federal Housing Finance Agency Director James Lockhart
said yesterday. He said a ratio of 125 percent “is a number” that’s on
the table, though “not necessarily the number we’re going to end up with.”
President Barack Obama’s Home Affordable program announced Feb. 18, sought
to help as many as 5 million Americans who may owe more on their mortgages
than their homes are worth. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have refinanced 80,
000 loans under that program, Lockhart told a National Association of Real
Estate Editors Association conference in Washington yesterday. He didn’t
say when the loan-to-value ratio could be raised.
“While this will help some borrowers with higher interest rate loans, you
really need to get mortgage rates down below 5 percent to have a huge impact
on refinancing,” Scott Buchta, a strategist at Guggenheim Capital Markets
LLC in Chicago, said.
Home Affordable has been “seeing a slowdown” as mortgage rates increase,
Lockhart said. The average rate on a typical 30- year fixed loan was 5.38
percent in the week ended yesterday, according to Freddie Mac. The rate is
up from a record low of 4.78 percent at the end of April.
Underwater Borrowers
The program applies to mortgages that meet Washington-based Fannie Mae and
McLean, Virginia-based Freddie Mac’s conforming loan limits. That cap is $
417,000 for some areas and as high as $729,750 for the 250 most expensive
real estate markets.
Under the program, borrowers with loans owned or guaranteed by Fannie Mae or
Freddie Mac who have loan-to-value ratios of 80 percent to 105 percent and
aren’t delinquent can refinance without buying mortgage insurance, or
paying for more insurance than they already have.
Expanding the program to a 125 percent loan-to-value level may benefit about
10 percent of borrowers that have loans backed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac
, according to Mahesh Swaminathan, a mortgage strategist for Credit Suisse
in New York. He said an additional 4 percent of borrowers with Fannie Mae or
Freddie Mac loans are further underwater.
“If home prices decline further, this bucket” of underwater borrowers
could expand, he said.
A drop in values has left about 20.4 million of the U.S.’s 93 million
houses, condos and co-ops with mortgages higher than the properties are
worth as of March 31, Seattle-based real estate data service Zillow.com said
in a report May 6.
Warehouse Lending
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac own or guarantee more than half of the single-
family mortgages in the U.S. The government- chartered companies were seized
by regulators in September amid concern that their capital wasn’t
sufficient to weather the worst housing slump since the Great Depression.
Lockhart also said yesterday that his agency, the companies’ regulator, is
looking at ways for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to help the so-called
warehouse lending market, which provides financing to smaller, independent
mortgage companies, amid a credit crunch.
While Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are prohibited by law from lending directly
to other firms, Lockhart said they may be able to provide the market some
liquidity by committing to purchase multifamily and other loans.
To contact the reporter on this story: Dawn Kopecki in Washington at
d******[email protected]; Jody Shenn in New York at j****[email protected].
Last Updated: June 19, 2009 13:23 EDT |
|