Fair Lending Shake-Ups: CFPB Vacates Townstone Settlement, FHFA Ends GSEs' Special Purpose Credit Programs — The Consumer Finance Podcast
Weekly Brief: BoA Sued; SCOTUS Shortlists; Fund Fights Argentina
On May 29, HUD issued a request for information (RFI) in the Federal Register, seeking public comment on modernizing FHA’s Minimum Property Requirements (MPRs) for single-family mortgage insurance programs. MPRs require that...more
Artificial intelligence and machine learning are no longer experimental tools in residential mortgage lending. They are embedded across the loan lifecycle, from borrower intake and underwriting to pricing, quality control,...more
Over the past four years, Florida’s condominium and homeowners’ association (“HOA”) statutes have experienced significant changes. Many were spurred by the collapse of Champlain Towers South; others were in response to...more
On March 18, 2026, Fannie Mae issued Lender Letter LL-2026-03, announcing sweeping updates to its project standards and property insurance requirements for condominium and homeowners’ associations as well as co-ops. These...more
On April 22, 2026, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) announced that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (the Enterprises) will update their selling policies to allow a limited number of approved lenders to initially use...more
Fannie Mae recently issued Lender Letter LL-2026-04 (Fannie Mae letter), which sets forth a governance framework for Fannie Mae single-family sellers and servicers using artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) in...more
Freddie Mac published a Guide Bulletin on April 21 that summarizes recent changes to the Guide and rolls out a new Conventional Small loan product. These changes impact property inspection requirements, property management...more
On April 22, the FHFA and HUD jointly announced that the government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs), Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, will begin accepting mortgage loans assessed using new credit score models — VantageScore 4.0 and...more
The rapid expansion and evolution of state and local property tax exemptions has become a critical tool in affordable and workforce housing finance. In many jurisdictions, these exemptions can materially improve project...more
On March 18, the FHFA announced that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (i.e., the enterprises) would remove and revise certain homeowners insurance and condominium project review requirements across their respective selling and...more
A recent article in The Atlantic titled “The Great American Condo Crisis” argues that the United States is simply not building enough condominiums and has never recovered after the 2008 Great Recession. ...more
On February 11, Freddie Mac issued a bulletin announcing significant updates to its servicing and loss mitigation policies for mortgage servicers, with those loss mitigation changes effective May 1. The revised guidelines...more
On February 11, the House Committee on Financial Services Subcommittee on Housing and Insurance convened a hearing to examine homeownership and the role of the secondary mortgage market, with a focus on the ongoing...more
Housing affordability has become a top priority for both federal and state governments. On January 14, 2026, the White House published an article outlining the President’s efforts to address housing affordability....more
On February 6, 2026, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) published a final rule repealing its Fair Lending, Fair Housing, and Equitable Housing Finance Plans regulation (part 1293)....more
In social media posts this week, President Trump announced major policy shifts aimed at improving housing affordability. In the first post on Jan. 7, the president stated that he is “immediately taking steps to ban large...more
On January 2, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld the constitutionality of the FHFA’s funding mechanism, affirming the dismissal of a lawsuit that challenged the agency’s authority under the Appropriations...more
On November 24, the FHFA announced that the multifamily loan purchase caps for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (the Enterprises) in 2026 will be $88 billion each, totaling $176 billion. The announcement stated that, in 2025, at...more
On November 25, the FHFA announced that the baseline conforming loan limits for mortgages acquired by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in 2026 will rise to $832,750, up from $806,500 in 2025. ...more
The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) recently announced the conforming loan limits for residential mortgage loans acquired by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in 2026. Fannie Mae addresses the limits in Lender Letter 2025-04....more
On October 30, the FHFA announced it released its annual housing report describing affordable housing activities in 2024 for the government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs). The agency found that, in 2024, Freddie Mac met all its...more
On October 2, the FHFA released a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) setting new single-family and multifamily housing goals for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (the GSEs) for 2026 through 2028. The proposed rule would introduce...more
On October 9, Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent delivered remarks at a community bank conference noting the administration’s strategies to promote community banking and financial regulation. Bessent outlined how the...more
On October 2, the FHFA issued a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) announcing the FHFA’s intent to withdraw several regulatory requirements for FHLBanks as well as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. ...more
Mortgage lenders who do business with the Government Sponsored Enterprises (“GSEs”) should note recent updates to their reconsideration of value (“ROV”) requirements....more