MLS Real Estate & Listings Blog

In a reversal of past policy, federal regulators say they won’t lower the $417,000 conforming loan limit to keep it in line with falling home prices.

Adopting a stance taken by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac during the housing downturn of the early 1990s, the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight has ruled that the conforming loan limit will move in only one direction: up.  more…

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More than 8,000 members of the Federal Home Loan Bank System will be allowed to double their purchases of mortgage-backed securities backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, providing more than $100 billion in additional liquidity over the next two years, regulators said today.  more…

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Federal regulators say they’re giving Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac additional leeway to buy up to $200 billion in mortgages and mortgage-backed securities by relaxing stringent capital requirements put in place in 2004 in the wake of management and accounting scandals.  more…

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Mortgage financer Freddie Mac briefly fell short of its minimum capital requirements last fall, but quickly came back into compliance by issuing $6 billion in preferred stock in December, federal regulators said today.

Freddie Mac and its sister company, Fannie Mae, managed to build capital surpluses well above the stricter requirements put in place following accounting and management scandals that forced both companies to restate several years of earnings.  more…

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