​​​​Building a new securitization infrastructure is a core goal of FHFA's 2014 Strategic Plan for the Conservatorships of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and a key element of this goal is the 

Navigating the home-buying process can seem overwhelming for many borrowers, but it may seem particularly challenging for those who have the added challenge of not being a native English language speaker.  Language barriers can further complicate an already complex and highly-detailed transaction, yet borrowers with limited English proficiency, or LEP borrowers, represent a growing share of the mortgage market – a trend that is likely to continue in the coming decades.  

Homeownership is part of the American Dream. To help make this dream a reality, lenders, real estate professionals, and housing counselors serve as trusted advisors to prospective homebuyers — providing education and guidance. But for millions of Americans with limited English proficiency (LEP) and the professionals assisting them, the home buying process comes with unique language challenges and barriers.

Since March, the United States experienced a surge in job losses that has created a concern about the ability of homeowners to pay their mortgages.  One way of measuring homeowners’ ability to make their mortgage payments in the current environment is to calculate the incidence of past-due mortgages.  Congress passed the CARES Act in March [1], allowing most mortgage borrowers to skip their normal required monthly mortgage payments without harming their consumer credit score or showing their mortgage as past-due in their credit report.

This blogpost offers a potential measure of the effectiveness of two retired Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (the Enterprises) loan modification programs: the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) and the Standard/Streamlined modification program.i The first section of the blog discusses the two modification programs, introduces the concept of post-modification homeownership longevity, and shows that both programs successfully helped borrowers remain in their homes during the two years following modification.

Over the past decade in the United States, the percentage of Hispanic/Latino and Asian American/Pacific Islander (AAPI) populations has increased to 18.5 and 6 percent, respectively.

As we observe National Hispanic Heritage Month – a celebration of Americans with ancestors in Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean and Central and South America – we want to highlight how FHFA approaches race and ethnicity subgroup analysis. Latino Americans have historically faced barriers to homeownership, a problem that persists today for some Latino communities. Early land laws and other policies promoted segregation by race and ethnicity, enacted barriers to homeownership, and perpetuated the wealth gap.

​​​Housing production has been on a downward trend for many ​decades. In the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, housing starts fell to their lowest level since at least the 1960s, on a per capita basis. Since then, housing production has recovered somewhat, but still remains below the level of previous peaks in 2006 and 1998, which were in turn below housing cycle peaks in the 1970s and 1980s. [1]   

One of the most exciting developments in the secondary mortgage market is happening behind the scenes as Fannie

​​​​​Introduction

As the nation's first publicly available dataset of aggregate statistics on appraisal records, the Federal Housing Finance Agency's (FHFA's) new Data Files and Dashboards give the public access to a broad set of data points and trends found in appraisal reports.