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Freddie and Fannie Reject Debt Relief - New York Times - By SHAILA DEWAN - ... If banks agreed to forgive some mortgage debt, Arizona offered to use federal aid to pay half the cost. Most banks declined. ... Only three homeowners have been approved for debt reduction since the program began in September 2010. A major obstacle has been that the two largest mortgage guarantors, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, will not participate — in Arizona or elsewhere. No loans are eligible for the state’s program if they were bought and held or securitized by the two companies, ... “It is extremely difficult for the principal reduction program to be successful” when Fannie and Freddie opt out, said Shaun Rieve, a spokesman for the Arizona Department of Housing.
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Federal judge tosses 72 suits against MERS - by LIZ ENOCHS - An Arizona federal judge dismissed 72 lawsuits against Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems Inc., which tracks ownership and servicing rights of U.S. mortgages. U.S. District Judge James Teilborg, relying on a September appellate court decision, rejected the argument by plaintiffs in the consolidated litigation that naming MERS as a beneficiary on deeds of trust means they're unsecured and the properties can't be foreclosed - Housingwire

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Bill allows tax-free use of retirement funds for mortgage payments - by JON PRIOR - ... Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) and Rep. Tom Graves (R-Ga.) submitted the Home Act Wednesday. Isakson also co-sponsored the Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) bill that would eliminate fees and loan-to-value caps for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac borrowers looking to refinance. Borrowers could pull as much as $50,000 from their retirement account or one-half of the current value of their account, whichever is smaller, and avoid the typical 10% tax penalty. The cap is a lifetime cap, and does not expire on a particular date. Borrowers are eligible to make multiple withdrawals until they reach the cap. ... - Housingwire
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Regarding Foreclosures: How Dark will Social Mood Become? - Michael Shedlock - MISH'S Global Economic Trend Analysis
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Yet Another Piss Poor Idea to Stimulate Housing: Tax Breaks for Rental Units Proposed by Peter Orszag, Vice Chairman at Citigroup Global Banking - Michael Shedlock - It is depressing to see an endless parade of foolish and/or self-serving ideas to "fix" the housing market. Here is yet another one, … Please consider the self-serving plea of Peter Orszag posing as Boomberg news: U.S. Can Rent Its Way to a Housing Recovery - MISH'S Global Economic Trend Analysis

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(has all the numbers) Freddie Mac: Mortgage Rates below 4% - by CalculatedRisk

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Walter Investment Management grows mortgage servicing portfolio 76% - by KERRI PANCHUK - ... The report said the increase could be the result of Walter Investment receiving servicing rights stemming from a deal where Bank of America sold servicing rights on 400,000 loans to Fannie Mae. ... - Housingwire

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GEITHNER: Get Ready, A New Plan For National Mortgage Refinancing Is About To Come - Joe Weisenthal and Zeke Miller - Money Game at Business Insider
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(interesting map) Why won’t Frannie do principal reductions? - ... Maybe the thing for the US government to do, then, is not to force Frannie to accept principal reductions outright — but rather just to force Frannie to mark their current underwater mortgages to some semblance of sanity, rather than doing their see-no-evil act and insisting on holding them at par. If Frannie has to take writedowns anyway, then maybe they’ll do so in a homeowner-friendly way. ... – Reuters

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People believe what their cultural group believes, facts be damned - hattip Patrick.net - Why "Scientific Consensus" Fails to Persuade - Individuals with competing cultural values disagree about what most scientists believe - National Science Foundation

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(on what you believe) The U.S. Dollar: Orthodoxy and Heresy - Charles Hugh Smith - ... Why is this so? For two simple but profound reasons. The human mind strongly prefers certainty to uncertainty and simple, fixed explanations over complex, contingent explanations. The human mind has a second, superglue-like quality: Once a viewpoint has been plucked from the swirling chaos of beliefs and explanations, then the mind quickly solidifies that view, resisting any future modification. Very little energy is devoted to questioning the position, while enormous energy is devoted to defending it. ... - Of Two Minds 
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Homeownership rate experiences biggest drop in 70 years - by LIZ ENOCHS - The U.S. homeownership rate experienced its biggest drop in 2010 in 70 years, dropping to 65.1%, down from 66.2% in 2000, according to data from the Census Bureau. The decline came even as the nation added 15.8 million housing units, increasing the total housing inventory by 13.6%, the Census Bureau said Thursday. - Housingwire

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California Attorney General Harris Now Signaling Willingness to Rejoin Foreclosure Talks - Yves Smith - ... It is a safe bet that the Democratic party has been muscling Harris since her defection last week. The Administration is desperate to have the AGs provide legitimacy to their planned “settlement as coverup” strategy. Not that it will be that effective in the end. The threat of the two states where all securitization trusts are domiciled (New York and Delaware) has the potential to undermine the value of any settlement, particularly since New York has the potent weapon of the Martin Act. Merely those two states moving forward (and remember, it is more than those two states) has the potential to be extremely embarrassing to the Administration and the AGs who continue to serve as human shields for the Administration. ... - Naked Capitalism 

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