Fannie Mae Increases Penalties for Borrowers Who Walk Away

News Release

June 23, 2010

Fannie Mae Increases Penalties for Borrowers Who Walk Away

Seven-Year Lockout Policy for Strategic Defaulters



WASHINGTON, DC — Fannie Mae (FNM/NYSE) announced today policy changes designed to encourage borrowers to work with their servicers and pursue alternatives to foreclosure. Defaulting borrowers who walk-away and had the capacity to pay or did not complete a workout alternative in good faith will be ineligible for a new Fannie Mae-backed mortgage loan for a period of seven years from the date of foreclosure. Borrowers who have extenuating circumstances may be eligible for new loan in a shorter timeframe.

"We're taking these steps to highlight the importance of working with your servicer," said Terence Edwards, executive vice president for credit portfolio management. "Walking away from a mortgage is bad for borrowers and bad for communities and our approach is meant to deter the disturbing trend toward strategic defaulting. On the flip side, borrowers facing hardship who make a good faith effort to resolve their situation with their servicer will preserve the option to be considered for a future Fannie Mae loan in a shorter period of time."

Fannie Mae will also take legal action to recoup the outstanding mortgage debt from borrowers who strategically default on their loans in jurisdictions that allow for deficiency judgments. In an announcement next month, the company will be instructing its servicers to monitor delinquent loans facing foreclosure and put forth recommendations for cases that warrant the pursuit of deficiency judgments.

Troubled borrowers who work with their servicers, and provide information to help the servicer assess their situation, can be considered for foreclosure alternatives, such as a loan modification, a short sale, or a deed-in-lieu of foreclosure. A borrower with extenuating circumstances who works out one of these options with their servicer could be eligible for a new mortgage loan in three years and in as little as two years depending on the circumstances. These policy changes were announced in April, in Fannie Mae's Selling Guide Announcement SEL-2010-05.

http://www.fanniemae.com/newsreleases/2010/5071.jhtml?p=Media&s=News+Releases

Weekly Twin Cities Real Estate Market Report

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Weekly Market Activity Report

The Twin Cities housing market continues to adjust to a world without a fancy tax credit. Pending sales leveled off following the slight gains seen the prior week, squatting at 645 signed contracts for the week ending June 19.

While that's steady compared to last week, it's anemic compared to last year at this time when the market posted 1,156 signed contracts. If you're keeping track of percentages, that means we're down 44.2 percent from a year ago—the sixth consecutive week of year-over-year declines exceeding 30 percent.

New listings are also down from a year ago, posting a drop of 8.4 percent from a year ago to 1,712 for the most recent reporting week. Any sort of "return to normalcy" is going to take some time.

-MAAR

Monthly Skinny: June 2010

Weekly Twin Cities Real Estate Report

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Weekly Market Activity Report

Pending sales in the Twin Cities housing market trended up for the first time in four weeks, but remain substantially below 2009. For the week ending June 12, there were 674 signed purchase agreements, up from the mark of 527 the prior week, but down dramatically from the mark of 1,210 seen during the same week a year ago.

This may be a sign that the drastic drops in sales seen in May and early June were simply temporary aftershock reactions to the tax-credit build up and that demand will slowly return over the course of the summer, but it’s far too early to say that with any certainty. We’ll be keeping a close eye on the numbers each week.

New listings moved upward for the same reporting week to 1,729, but remain 12.2 percent behind last year at this time. However, inventory has slowly climbed due to the decline in pending sales, currently sitting at 26,990 active listings, an increase of 1.1 percent from a year ago.

-MAAR

Price Gains Overshadowed by Lagging Housing Demand

Price Gains Overshadowed by Lagging Housing Demand

May of this year marks the first time since August of 2005 where we've had five consecutive months of year-over-year median price increases. However, pending sales figures declined sharply in May. It is clear that the tax credit party is over and the hangover has truly set in.

The May median sales price for the Twin Cities 13-county metropolitan area was $175,000, a 6.1 percent increase over last May, but the only segment of the market where prices actually increased was the lender-owned (foreclosure) submarket. Traditional and short sales both posted year-over-year price declines.



New listings were down across the board; pending sales were down for every category except short sales—which were up 28.4 percent over May of last year.

The median sales price of traditional homes (excluding foreclosures and short sales) in May was $198,000, down $12,000 or 5.7 percent from the $210,000 figure posted last May. The foreclosure sales price showed a welcome 7.6 percent increase to $125,000, while short sale properties posted a 7.0 percent decline to $143,250.

There were 3,910 signed purchase agreements in May, a decrease of 24.6 percent from last year. That is the greatest year-over-year decrease since April 2006. Seller activity also slowed considerably, with 6,335 new listings posted. This represents a 22.4 percent decrease from last May. In fact, by year-to-date figures, there have been only 23 more pending sales so far this year compared to last.

Like many regions across the country, we saw an uptick in activity as the April 30 federal tax credit deadline approached. When the tax credit ended, buyers seem to have lost interest without the substantial incentive enticing them into the market.

In terms of year-over-year comparisons, housing inventory remained fairly constant in the Twin Cities. The 26,412 active listings for May weighed in at just 1.0 percent under May of last year. The supply-demand ratio increased by 11.0 percent to 5.05. This means that there are about 5 homes available per buyer for June.

-MAAR

Weekly Twin Cities Real Estate Market Report

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Weekly Market Activity Report

Remember how we've been saying that the Twin Cities housing market has been getting successively slower in home sales every week since the tax credit ended? Umm, yeah, well that's still happening.

Pending sales for the week ending June 5 were another 57.0 percent behind the pace seen a year ago, dropping from 1,226 in 2009 to 527 today. This is the fifth consecutive week-to-week drop in signed contracts. While activity is down across the board, lender-mediated foreclosures and short sales are slowly increasing their market share of sales because traditional home sales have declined sharply. During this week last year, 37.8 percent of pending sales were lender-mediated; this year the share is 43.3 percent.

Thankfully, new supply is not growing in lock-step. The 1,521 new homes placed on the market for the most recent reporting week were 29.6 percent less than last year at this time. This has helped keep the Months Supply of Inventory metric at 6.9 months, down 9.3 percent from May 2009.

-MAAR

Twin Cities Weekly Real Estate Report

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Weekly Market Activity Report

As the weeks following the tax credit expiration unfold, buyer demand continues to slow. The 600 purchase agreements signed for the week ending May 29 were 34.6 percent below the previous year—the fourth consecutive week of year-over-year decline in Pending Sales.

Refreshed supply is also in decline, as New Listings posted a fifth consecutive week of year-over-year decline, landing at 1,474 for the most recent reporting week—a 5.9 percent decrease from a year ago.

Two other metrics for this week:

Days on Market – This stat continues its year-over-year downward trend, resting at 118 days for May 2010.

Percentage of Original List Price Received – This continues to grow, up 2.8 percent above last year at this time to 94.1 percent of the list price.

-MAAR