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Just retweet most of them.... will comment tomorrow - time for bed 
thanks for letting us know LW! I haven't been able to check boards or tweets much lately. Have a great night!
FHA Unveils New Loan Limits for 2018
By George Brooks ... gbrooks@imfpubs.com
The FHA late this week announced new loan limits for 2018, with most areas of the country looking at higher ceilings next year. The higher mortgage amounts are effective for FHA case numbers assigned on or after Jan. 1, 2018.
The FHA ceiling will rise to $679,650 from $636,150 and the floor will increase to $294,515 from $275,665. The floor is set at 65 percent of the national conforming loan limit of $453,100, which applies to areas where 115 percent of the median home price is less than the floor limit.
Any areas where the loan limit exceeds the “floor” are deemed high-cost. Federal law requires FHA to set its maximum loan-limit ceiling for high-cost areas at 150 percent of the national conforming limit.
In addition, the national mortgage limit for Home Equity Conversion Mortgage loans will increase to $679,650 from $636,150. FHA regulations currently do not allow HECM loan limits to vary by metropolitan statistical area or county.
Hensarling is Ready to Deal on GSE Reform, but Will it Happen ?
Friday Dec 8,2017 ... By Paul Muolo ... pmuolo@imfpubs.com
It appears that Congressional reform of the housing-finance system – and final resolution of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac – is back on track with a key piece of good news for MBS investors: an explicit federal guarantee on conventional product looks likely.
But now comes the hard part: the details and working out a compromise among elected officials and the industries that will be affected by a new world order for mortgage finance.
Late this week, a key piece to the reform puzzle fell into place when House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling, R-TX, said publicly he’s ready to cut a deal on reform and is now open to the idea of a broader role for Ginnie Mae, possibly as a successor of sorts for Fannie and Freddie.
For years, as chairman of the HFSC, Hensarling has been a fierce opponent of any type of government guarantee on MBS backed by conventional mortgages, maintaining that the private sector should bear the burden of all risk – and that the two government-sponsored enterprises should be liquidated and their charters retired.
What We’re Hearing: President Trump: Wells Fargo Will be Fined President Trump ?
Time to Exempt Fannie and Freddie from the GOP Tax Overhaul ?
Who Lost the GSEs ?
Hensarling’s Change of Heart, Why ?
CMLA Names Former Freddie Official Acting Director
December 8, 2017 ... By Paul Muolo ... pmuolo@imfpubs.com
Wells Fargo, the nation’s largest home lender and servicer, will not escape the wrath of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for (allegedly) over charging consumers for rate-lock extensions. Who says so? President Trump, that’s who. In a tweet that came mid-morning Friday, Trump tweeted out: “Fines and penalties against Wells Fargo Bank for their bad acts against customers will not be dropped…”
Trump’s declaration was in reaction to a Reuters’ story that said the CFPB might go easy on Wells. (The news organization quoted anonymous sources.) The megabank had come to terms with the agency prior to the recent departure of Director Richard Cordray…
Now comes the big question: Why is the president of the United States weighing in on a bank regulatory issue? Then again, it’s Donald Trump. Mortgage ramifications? Stay tuned…
If the GOP tax overhaul plan becomes law with a 20 percent corporate tax rate, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will need to fork over to Treasury an estimated $13 billion to $19 billion (depending on the new tax rate) to cover deferred tax assets currently on their balance sheets. The estimate, which comes from Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, has been out there for months. But now it’s a little scarier for the simple reason that in 23 days, Fannie and Freddie will see their capital buffer fall to zero from $600 million currently…
Of course, tax writers working on the final details of the overhaul could create a legislative “carve out,” exempting Fannie and Freddie specifically from the DTA hit. But as one lobbyist told us, that’s highly unlikely at this point…
If you’re keeping score, the GOP is writing a tax bill – without Democratic input – that will result in the GSEs taking another draw from Treasury next year. The only way for Fannie and Freddie to avoid this is if they can earn that much in the fourth quarter. At this point, that’s almost impossible, though the two did – combined – earn $7.7 billion in the third quarter. However, a nice chunk of that represents a $5.5 billion subprime-related settlement that Royal Bank of Scotland paid to the GSEs this summer…
It’s quite possible that Democrats will blame the GOP for this looming GSE bailout. But will the voters? First, you’ll have to explain to them what a deferred tax asset is…
House Financial Services Committee Chairman Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-TX, wants housing-finance reform as part of his legacy when he retires from Congress next year, so much so that he finally caved (this week) on the concept of maintaining a federal guarantee on certain parts of the conventional market. At least that’s how his change in attitude was explained to IMFnews…
Someone else who would like to see GSE/housing finance become a reality before he retires (late next year) is David Stevens, president and CEO of the Mortgage Bankers Association…
Prospects for housing finance reform ‘brighten’ and may favor shareholders
Published: Dec 8, 2017 12:55 p.m. ET
Bipartisan consensus on one of the thorniest issues left unfinished from the financial crisis ?
Fannie Mae's current headquarters on Wisconsin Ave. in Washington D.C. The agency plans to vacate this building by 2018.
By ANDREA RIQUIER
Prospects for an overhaul of the housing finance system are “brighter” as fresh legislation advances through Congress, one analyst believes.
Senators Bob Corker and Mark Warner are working on a bill to decide the fates of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two government-sponsored enterprises still lingering in a financial-crisis-era limbo. That question has taken on some urgency in recent weeks as the time nears when the two companies no longer have any capital cushions, as directed by Congress, yet will likely need to tap taxpayer dollars if proposed tax law changes slash the value of tax credits they hold on their balance sheets.
There are still big questions to be determined, and Congress has its hands full with other financial services priorities, wrote Capital Alpha’s Charles Gabriel. Still, he said, some of the broad outlines of the plan that’s emerged seem to be gaining traction and garnering compromise.
“Specifically, we see the shifted Corker-Warner stance toward a continued GSE role and some concessions to shareholders as potentially reducing or removing barriers to reform,” Gabriel wrote late Thursday. “And we thus expect it to importantly change the threshold debate.”
Among the biggest shifts: House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling’s acknowledgment that he recognizes the political necessity of keeping some form of government guarantee for mortgages.
“Although I hate to have the federal government in the position of deciding which mortgages can be securitized, with $5.7 trillion in guarantees, decide it must,” Hensarling said Wednesday.
The broad outlines of the Corker-Warner plan suggest that Fannie FNMA, -2.96% and Freddie FMCC, -3.55% ’s investment portfolios would be wound down, and future mortgages would be explicitly guaranteed by a government agency led by Ginnie Mae, the agency that currently securitizes mortgages from the Federal Housing Administration and Veterans Administration, with a wrap from a federal mortgage insurance agency that would be created later.
But as Gabriel notes, compromise on the contours of the future housing finance system may be easy compared to untangling what’s owed to shareholders.
Between the 2008 crisis bailout and a 2012 amendment to that agreement, which siphoned the enterprises’ profits to Treasury, shareholders have been nearly wiped out, and years of fighting the government in court have done little to settle the matter.
There are two classes of equity in both companies: preferred and common. Bloomberg and Politico reported this week that the current proposals would boost the preferred shares, but leave the common ones out.
“This messaging seemed puzzling in that it might devalue the government’s own 79.9% equity stake in the two Enterprises,” Gabriel wrote. “But, as some observe, it might be attractive to Senator Corker in settling scores with hedge funds and shareholder groups with whom he has tangled for several years.”
On Thursday, shares of the preferred stocks FNMAS, -4.27% FMCKJ, -4.08% surged while the common class of shares stumbled.
There are still many open questions and constituencies to please before reform is finalized. Earlier attempts at overhauls, including one from Corker and Warner, failed. Even despite the recent momentum, Gabriel thinks there’s only a 35% change of comprehensive housing finance reform next year.
Still, as he wrote, “We think Fannie-Freddie investors may finally be on the verge of seeming less as outliers, which could attract additional capital, from heretofore fence-sitting institutional firms, as well. As for the common vs preferred struggle, we’ll leave it to others to see the future, though we doubt a negative verdict with regard to the former might be that quick or easy to assume.
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