Secondary Market Business

Freddie sellers will no longer have to reduce the maximum loan-to-value by 5 percent on mortgages secured by properties located in declining markets, according to a bulletin issued on May 29. Earlier last month, Freddie had indicated that it removed the reduced LTV requirement on purchase-money loans and refinances with no cashout.

Freddie also said it will no longer purchase loans with LTVs above 95 percent, except for mortgages insured by the Federal Housing Administration and loans guaranteed by the Department of Veteran’s Affairs. And while it will still purchase 100 percent LTV Home Possible Mortgages on single-family properties, the LTV is limited to 95 percent on 2-4 unit properties.

On cashout programs, loans with no secondary financing will be limited to 85 percent LTV, while loans with secondary financing will be limited to 80 percent LTV and 85 percent total LTV. Total LTV on cashout loans with home-equity lines-of-credit will be limited to 90 percent LTV.

On loans with no cashout secured by investment properties, the maximum LTV will be 85 percent when there is no secondary financing, while investor loans with secondary liens will be limited to 80 percent LTV and 85 percent total LTV. The total LTV on investor loans with HELOCs will be limited to 90 percent LTV.

Freddie’s changes apply to loans with application dates on or after June 1.

Fremont Investment & Loan completed the sale of its remaining $12.2 billion serviced loan portfolio to Litton Loan Servicing LP, an announcement Tuesday said.

UBS recently reported it closed on the sale of $15 billion in residential mortgage-backed securities to a newly created distressed asset fund that will be managed by BlackRock. The sale consisted primarily of subprime and Alt-A U.S. RMBS with a nominal value of around $22 billion.

The new fund was capitalized with approximately $3.75 billion in equity raised by BlackRock and an $11.25 billion multi-year collateralized term loan from UBS.

Sam Garcia worked in mortgage lending for twenty years prior to becoming publisher of MortgageDaily.com.

e-mail: mtgsam@aol.com