A new report from the GSEs' regulator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, shows that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac implemented 405,700 trial and permanent loan modifications under the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) and refinanced 4 million loans through the end of November. According to the federal agency, the two mortgage giants' efforts to restructure troubled loans are making an impact despite rising delinquency rates. The number of foreclosures started by the GSEs fell 15 percent in the third quarter.
According to its own estimates, the FDIC will sustain losses exceeding $36 billion to cover the 140 bank failures in 2009. That price tag will eclipse the total dollar amount of the losses the FDIC incurred during the six years spanning 1987 through 1992, when 1,049 banks collapsed during the savings and loan (S&L) crisis, costing the FDIC $29.6 billion.
Record-low interest rates have helped to boost home sales, shrink inventories, and bring a hint of stabilization to the housing sector, but they're on the rise, and some federal officials are concerned they'll go too high when the U.S. central bank stops buying mortgage securities early this year. According to the minutes of the Federal Reserve's most recent closed-door meeting, policymakers have already begun debating whether to extend the program, but the decision has left a dividing line down the central bank boardroom.
An industry coalition representing 35,000 real estate appraisers is lobbying the U.S. Department of the Interior to hire a chief appraiser to serve as the country's "final decision authority on appraisal matters." The organizations, led by the Appraisal Institute, are asking Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to follow recommendations made by the department's own inspector general to appoint someone to the senior-level post.
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