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Inside Mortgage Finance

October 29, 2015

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Mortgage Origination Volume Slipped in 3Q15, But Large Lenders Appeared to Build Market Share

Mortgage production ran into a seasonal buzz-kill and stiffer headwinds from interest rates during the third quarter of 2015, leading to a modest decline in volume, according to a new InsideMortgage Finance market analysis and ranking. An estimated $455.0 billion of single-family first-lien mortgages were originated during the third quarter, down 7.1 percent from the second quarter of 2015. But on a year-to-date basis, total originations were up 42.9 percent from the first nine months of last year. In fact, at $1.350 trillion, production through the end of September had already topped last year’s $1.300 trillion. A lot of this year’s increase came...[Includes two data tables] Read More

Everybody Agrees on FHA’s Upward Revenue Arc, No Outright MIP Cut; Analysts Say More Policy Changes Likely to Come

Although most analysts and industry observers agree that the FHA cut in mortgage insurance premiums, effective in January, has resulted in stronger purchase volumes and credit availability, opinions vary as to whether another reduction is on the way. The FY 2014 independent actuarial audit of the FHA Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund projected FHA’s total loan production in fiscal 2015 at $124 billion. With the FHA pricing adjustment, production is now expected to increase by 60 percent, with total production estimated at $200 billion by the end of the fiscal year, said Brian Chappelle, an industry consultant. As program fundamentals trend upward, Chappelle is... Read More

Are Home Builders Next on the CFPB’s MSA Hit List? NAR Reminds Members How to Be RESPA Compliant

Lender anxiety tied to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s crackdown on marketing services agreements is reaching a new fever pitch these days, while spreading to other sectors of the housing finance industry, namely home builders and Realtors. Industry officials interviewed by Inside Mortgage Finance over the past two weeks said title insurance affiliates owned by Realtors and home builders are a particular area of concern – namely pushing customers into using service providers in which they have an ownership stake. “I’ll tell... Read More

After Four-Plus Decades as an FHA Specialist, First Mortgage Shuts Its Doors and Sells Assets

First Mortgage Corp., Ontario, CA, this month completed its liquidation, selling its branch network and $6 billion of servicing rights to other firms, and winding down a 44-year-old business that catered to FHA borrowers with lower credit scores. Jean Ziroli-Kobielsky, a recruiter for the family-owned business, noted that it wasn’t fear of regulatory oversight that prompted her father and brother to sell FMC, it was technology: “Some of our technology systems were still using DOS,” she told Inside Mortgage Finance. (DOS, or disk operating system, was the precursor to the Microsoft Windows software line for PCs.) She said... Read More

Nonbanks Play a Bigger Role in Mortgage Servicing, Get to Manage a Complex Asset

Many independent mortgage companies that are relatively new to the mortgage servicing market are actively managing their portfolios in a constantly shifting environment, according to panelists at the annual convention of the Mortgage Bankers Association. The surprisingly cheap cost of retaining mortgage servicing rights during the 2012 bonanza led a number of nonbank lenders to start amassing MSR portfolios. It has become a valuable tool in managing cash flow and earnings in the volatile mortgage production market of recent years. Guild Mortgage is... Read More

Although Major GSE Reform Is Years Away, Congress May Tinker at the Edges

There is widespread agreement that any substantive legislative remedy for the conservatorship of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac won’t begin to happen until after the 2016 elections – if then – but lawmakers on Capitol Hill may manage to push through some minor adjustments in this Congress. The most likely legislation to pass would have an impact on just two individuals, the CEOs of Fannie and Freddie, who received sizable pay hikes early this year. In the Senate, S. 2036, the Equity in Government Compensation Act of 2015 would require the Federal Housing Finance Agency to suspend those compensation packages and roll them back to $600,000, their previous level. The bill was co-sponsored... Read More

Experts Say Tight Credit Access and Housing Affordability Are Hindering the American Dream

The younger generation appears ready to take the plunge into the housing market, but finding an affordable home and gaining access to credit remain the top challenges, especially when it comes to African-Americans and Latinos, according to some experts. Mark Fleming, chief economist with First American, sponsor of a housing forum on Capitol Hill this week, said the way mortgage credit is formulated today doesn’t necessarily fit the type of ethnically diverse, millennial borrower of the future. “Ethnically diverse communities tend... Read More

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