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Chris Thorman at www.SoftwareAdvice.com has written a great post on Fannie Mae’s recently-announced Deed for Lease (D4L) program that complements our previous post on the subject very well.

Thorman’s article does a good job at breaking down D4L using easy-to-understand language. “Own to Rent: Breaking Down Fannie Mae’s Deed for Lease Program,” covers how the program works, who is eligible, property requirements, as well as examines whether or not it makes financially to take advantage of the program.

Don’t forget to check in on our “HSH in the News 2009” page located at the top-right section of the blog. News outlets across the country seek to quote not only our mortgage rates and statistics, but they often seek our commentary and opinions on the latest financial and consumer news items.

Here’s a look at some of our more-recent mentions:

UDATE1: Fannie Mae has released the details to a program that will turn struggling homeowners into renters. The “Deed for Lease Program” (DLP) allows delinquent homeowners to rent their home for up to a year instead of being foreclosed upon.

Instructions for Borrowers

Fannie Mae announced last week that they will no longer guarantee biweekly mortgages loans. According to Announcement 09-29, “Due to a lack of demand and increased operational costs, Fannie Mae is retiring the biweekly payment mortgage product…”

A biweekly mortgage allowed borrowers to make mortgage payments every two weeks, instead of once a month. The more frequent payments resulted in a borrower’s ability to pay far less in interest over the life of the loan. Merely because Fannie is no longer buying these types of loans doesn’t mean that they’re gone from the market. Many private lenders run their own programs, so check with your lender to see if they are available.

Here’s a story that managed to slip under the radar: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s regulator announced a few weeks back that taxpayers shouldn’t expect to be repaid in full by the mortgage giants. Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Director James Lockhart said in a speech in Washington last month that some of the GSEs losses will “never be repaid.”

Lockhart’s skepticism didn’t stop there. In a television interview, the head of the FHFA suggested taxpayers should look at the losses as a necessary price we had to pay:

This does not come as much of a surprise:

The regulator of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac said it was unlikely that the federal government would ever be paid back the entire $85 billion spent so far on bailing out the firms — and added that the cost was going to rise as additional funds are drawn.

“Their book is so large,” James Lockhart, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, said at the National Press Club. “It’s hard for me to see that they will be able to repay all of that.”

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Here we go again. While we wanted to be the first to coin that phrase as it pertains to the recent push by two Congressmen for Fannie and Freddie to loosen their lending standards, we were beaten to the punch (it was one of Drudge Report’s top headlines today) — so we’ll have to settle for second place.

But settling for second won’t stop us from reiterating just how unbelievable we think it is that certain lawmakers have already begun to revert back to the actions and decisions that were among the basic causes of this housing crisis and the subsequent recession.

In an attempt to increase participation in the White House’s Home Affordable Refinance plan, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s regulator is considering expanding the qualifications for the program. The Federal Housing Finance Authority (FHFA) is currently discussing whether or not to allow the GSEs to refinance mortgages with a loan to value (LTV) over 105%:

“We’re actively considering how to structure a program that makes sense over 105 percent,” Federal Housing Finance Agency Director James Lockhart said yesterday. He said a ratio of 125 percent “is a number” that’s on the table, though “not necessarily the number we’re going to end up with.”

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In a letter to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Democratic lawmakers Barney Frank (D., M.A.) and Anthony Weiner (D., N.Y.) urged the government-sponsored agencies to loosen their lending standards to accomodate those buying condos:

In March, Fannie Mae said it would no longer guarantee mortgages on condos in buildings where fewer than 70% of the units have been sold, up from 51%. Fannie Mae also won’t purchase mortgages in buildings where 15% of owners are delinquent on condo association dues or where one owner has more than 10% of units, which the firm sees as signals that a building could run into financial trouble. Freddie Mac will implement similar policies next month.

The bleeding among the secondary market entities goes on. Fannie Mae lost another $23 billion in the first quarter of the year, and is back asking for more money:

Fannie Mae, operating under a federal conservatorship, asked the U.S. Treasury for a $19 billion capital investment and raised the possibility that its long-term survival may be dependent on continued government funding.

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