Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp (OTCMKTS:FMCC) yesterday released its October Insight, providing a positive outlook of future homeownership rates. It should be noted here that these estimates are developed keeping in mind that current variables remain unchanged. The company pointed out that the national homeownership rate has been on the decline, for the last 10-years and is expected to continue doing so. This could possibly mean that homeownership falls below 60%.
FMCC weighed on the opinion of experts, stating that they did not take into account the potential macroeconomic variables, which could significantly impact these rates. Three of the main variables include a decision from the GSE’s on the future of housing finance, the possibility of Millennials getting married and starting families and the possibility of overcoming factors responsible for lower homeownership rates on non-white Americans. These comments were made by Sean Becketti, the Chief Economist at FMCC.
In addition to this, FMCC is also dealing with the problems posed by hurricane Mathew. The company has been developing a menu of disaster relief policies, which would be made available to affected homeowners very soon. Freddie Mac has stated that until the policies are released, servicers should make use of its forbearance programs, so as to avoid immediate mortgage relief. Yvette Gilmore, one of the VPs at FMCC, stated that American families whose business or homes have been affected by the disaster are encouraged to call their respective mortgage servicers. She also noted that forbearance on mortgage payments, for up to 1-year, can be made available, if their mortgage is owned by the company.
Freddie Mac also claimed that it would not report forbearance or delinquencies of the affected homeowners, to the credit bureaus across the country and would also waive off the late fees associated with these loans. The company has also asked servicers to take into account the cases of borrowers that work in the affected areas, but have property in unaffected areas.
Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp (OTCMKTS:FMCC) recorded a trade volume of 2.11 million and a surge of 0.28% in its share value, to close at $1.8 per share, at the end of the October 12 trading session.
