The only lender type that saw an increase in GSE-related production in the first quarter was housing finance agencies. Meanwhile, deliveries to the GSEs ticked up in April. (Includes two data charts.)
Fannie and Freddie modified their policies to support lower-income borrowers by allowing greater use of downpayment assistance and equity-sharing programs.
Nineteen of the top-100 GSE sellers saw quarterly volumes fall more than 80% year over year. United Wholesale Mortgage, however, managed to boost its deliveries. (Includes two data charts.)
Deciding whether the GSEs should use FICO or VantageScore or both turned out to be the easy part. The hard part is going to be the multiyear process of figuring out how to use the scores together.
Critics argue that, by targeting deep-pocket institutional buyers, the enterprises’ sale of non-performing and reperforming loans removes homes from the buyers’ market and makes it impossible for nonprofit organizations to participate meaningfully.
In January, lenders delivered 73.1% fewer mortgages to the GSEs than a year ago, but the month-over-month drop was just 4.5% from December. (Includes two data charts.)
Uncertainty caused by regulations and the complexity of calculating income and debt make DTI a poor metric to use in pricing a loan without the risk of lenders having to eat a new fee.