The federal agency that oversees the bulk of the U.S. housing market is stepping in to help cash-starved mortgage firms — but it is exacting a price, the Wall Street Journal reported. The firms, including companies like Quicken Loans Inc. and Freedom Mortgage Corp., have been stuck with mortgages they would typically sell, as borrowers suspend payments amid the economy’s pandemic-driven downturn. The Federal Housing Finance Agency said Wednesday that mortgage firms can sell some of those loans to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-controlled companies that buy mortgages and package them into securities. “Purchases of these previously ineligible loans will help provide liquidity to mortgage markets and allow originators to keep lending,” FHFA Director Mark Calabria said. Industry officials praised the regulator’s move but suggested that fees Fannie and Freddie will charge for the purchases — from 5 percent to 7 percent of a loan’s value — were high and should be subject to negotiation. The new fees attached to the sale of loans may be cost-prohibitive for many credit unions and limit affordable loan options for home buyers,” said Dan Berger, chief executive of the National Association of Federally Insured Credit Unions. Like banks and nonbank mortgage companies, credit unions originate loans that they sell to Fannie and Freddie.
