Summary of Significant Accounting Policies (Policies)

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2016

Accounting Policies [Abstract]

Basis of Presentation [Policy Text Block]

Basis of Presentation

The accompanying unaudited interim condensed consolidated financial statements have been prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (“GAAP”) for interim financial information and with the SEC’s instructions to Form 10-Q and Article 10 of Regulation S-X. Accordingly, they do not include all of the information and note disclosures required by GAAP for complete consolidated financial statements. In the opinion of management, all adjustments of a normal recurring nature considered necessary for a fair presentation have been included. The accompanying condensed consolidated financial statements include our accounts as well as the accounts of other entities in which we have a controlling financial interest. All intercompany accounts and transactions have been eliminated. To conform to our current period presentation, we have reclassified certain amounts reported in our prior periods’ condensed consolidated financial statements. Results for the nine months ended September 30, 2016 may not necessarily be indicative of the results for the year ending December 31, 2016. The unaudited interim condensed consolidated financial statements as of and for the nine months ended September 30, 2016 should be read in conjunction with our audited consolidated financial statements and related notes included in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2015 (“2015 Form 10-K”), filed with the SEC on February 19, 2016.

Use of Estimates, Policy [Policy Text Block]

Use of Estimates

Preparing condensed consolidated financial statements in accordance with GAAP requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect our reported amounts of assets and liabilities, and disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities as of the dates of our condensed consolidated financial statements, as well as our reported amounts of revenues and expenses during the reporting periods. Management has made significant estimates in a variety of areas including, but not limited to, valuation of certain financial instruments and other assets and liabilities and allowance for loan losses. Actual results could be different from these estimates.

On January 1, 2015, we adopted regulatory guidance issued by FHFA which prescribes, among other things, guidance on when a loan should be charged off. This change in estimate resulted in the recognition on January 1, 2015 of (1) $1.8 billion in charge-offs of held for investment loans, (2) $724 million in charge-offs of preforeclosure property taxes and insurance receivable and (3) a reduction to our allowance for loan losses and our allowance for preforeclosure property taxes and insurance receivable in amounts equal to charge-offs recognized in connection with held for investment loans and preforeclosure property taxes and insurance receivable.

For the majority of our delinquent single-family loans, we charge off the loan at the date of foreclosure or other liquidation event (such as a deed-in-lieu of foreclosure or a short sale). For a subset of delinquent single-family loans, we charge off the portion of the loans that is deemed uncollectible prior to foreclosure when the loans have been delinquent for a specified length of time and meet specified mark-to-market loan-to-value (“LTV”) ratios. We continue to enhance our data collection and analysis efforts to further refine our loss estimates as we obtain incremental information on the performance of our loans.

New Accounting Pronouncements, Policy [Policy Text Block]

New Accounting Guidance

Effective January 1, 2016, we adopted guidance regarding consolidation of legal entities such as limited partnerships, limited liability corporations and securitization structures. The impact of the adoption was not material to our condensed consolidated financial statements.

In February 2016, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) issued guidance on leases. The guidance clarified the definition of a lease and requires lessees to recognize on the balance sheet a right-of-use asset, representing its right to use the underlying asset for the lease term, and a corresponding lease liability for all leases with terms greater than 12 months. This guidance supersedes the existing lease guidance; however, we must continue to classify leases to determine how to recognize lease-related expense in our condensed consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive income. The new guidance is effective for us on January 1, 2019. We have evaluated this guidance and determined it will not have a material impact on our condensed consolidated financial statements.

In June 2016, FASB issued guidance that changes the impairment model for most financial assets and certain other instruments. For loans, held-to-maturity debt securities and other financial assets recorded at amortized cost, entities will be required to use a new forward-looking “expected loss” model that will replace today’s “incurred loss” model and generally will result in the earlier recognition of allowances for losses. The guidance is effective on January 1, 2020 with early adoption permitted on January 1, 2019. We will recognize the impact of the new guidance through a cumulative-effect adjustment to retained earnings as of the beginning of the year of adoption. We are currently evaluating the impact of this guidance on our condensed consolidated financial statements and the timing of our adoption.

In August 2016, FASB issued guidance regarding classification of certain items within the statement of cash flows in order to reduce diversity in practice with respect to cash flow classifications. The guidance is effective for us on January 1, 2018 and will be applied retrospectively for each period presented. We are currently evaluating the impact of this guidance on our condensed consolidated financial statements.