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Inside Mortgage Finance

April 7, 2016

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Despite Bump Up in Refi Market, GSE Business Volume Slowed in Early 2016 As Purchase Market Cooled

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac saw a slight decline in their single-family mortgage business during the first three months of 2016 – in fact, it was the slowest quarter in nearly two years – according to a new analysis and ranking by Inside Mortgage Finance. The two government-sponsored enterprises issued $172.97 billion of single-family mortgage-backed securities during the first quarter of this year, a 3.4 percent decline from the fourth quarter of 2015. It was the slowest three-month volume since the second quarter of 2014, and the fourth-lowest output since the GSEs were put in conservatorship back in 2008. The slowdown stemmed...[Includes three data tables] Read More

TRID Continues to Plague Non-Agency Secondary Market; More Nonbanks Could Hit the Skids

The mortgage industry is keeping the heat on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, urging the powerful consumer regulator to issue official guidance on TRID disclosure errors and assignee liability as problems continue to plague the non-agency secondary market. According to interviews conducted by Inside Mortgage Finance over the past several weeks, problems persist in the secondary because certain jumbo investors won’t buy loans even if there’s just one, minor TRID error... Read More

Mortgage Servicing Auctions Come Fast and Furious Despite Uncertainty Over Rates; Bidders Price Offers Accordingly

Although interest rates have been trending downward for much of the year, it hasn’t stopped mortgage firms from selling one of their most prized assets: mortgage servicing rights. According to a new tally from Inside Mortgage Finance, almost $27 billion in MSR auctions have been announced since March 1, with some bulk deals sized as high as $6.2 billion dollars. At least 16 offerings have been announced... Read More

Quicken’s Ability to Meet Scheduled Closing Dates Is a Major Factor in Real Estate Agents’ Mortgage Referrals

The call-center business model used by Quicken Loans won praise from real estate agents who often prefer to deal with a local loan officer, according to the results of a new survey by Campbell Surveys and sponsored by Inside Mortgage Finance. “It is clear that agents like Quicken for loan programs, lead time on closing dates, policy on providing closing status to agents and performance on meeting closing dates,” said Tom Popik, research director for Campbell Surveys. He said... Read More

United Guaranty Announces Initial Stock Offering As Part of a Move to Separate from Parent AIG

United Guaranty last week filed papers for an initial public offering with the Securities and Exchange Commission as a first step to split from its parent company, American International Group, Inc. UG, the mortgage insurance subsidiary of AIG, has filed a proposed aggregate offering of $100 million of common stock but pricing has not been determined. The IPO will not launch until later this year, but if the weak IPO market picks up soon, “it would change things a great deal,” according to an analysis by investment research firm Seeking Alpha. In late January, AIG announced... Read More

Industry Allies Fault CFPB on TRID, ATR, Use of Enforcement Actions to Set Policy

Mortgage lending allies, free-market advocates and Congressional critics of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau this week took issue with some of the CFPB’s most significant mortgage rules and its use of regulatory enforcement actions to establish policy they said would be more appropriately set in the traditional public notice and comment process. Former Federal Trade Commission official Todd Zywicki, now a law professor at George Mason University, told members of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee that many smaller banks have chosen to exit the mortgage market rather than bear the regulatory cost and risk associated with complying with the numerous mortgage regulations promulgated by the CFPB. Citing a survey of small banks conducted by GMU’s Mercatus Center, Zywicki said... Read More

Experts Say Looming Appraiser Shortage Threatens Housing, Reform Needed Amid Aging Demographics

A potential shortage of residential real estate appraisers has some concerned that the decline could have far-reaching effects on the housing and mortgage industry. This prompted the Appraisal Foundation to issue a request for comment and examine possible changes to the recently revamped criteria used to qualify appraisers. While new criteria for becoming an appraiser went into effect in January 2015, the Appraiser Qualifications Board published a concept paper in July that was followed by a public hearing in October 2015 to voice its concern about the qualification criteria. Nationwide, the numbers of licensed appraisers has trended... Read More

Housing Policy Experts Continue Probing for Way Out of GSE Limbo, Onerous Credit Underwriting

Housing policy experts at a Washington, DC, forum this week were generally supportive of renewed efforts to address the quagmire in which Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have been stuck for over eight years, but there was less evidence of movement to expand the credit box. A group of high-profile policy experts led by Urban Institute Senior Fellow Jim Parrott recently tried to re-ignite the mortgage reform effort by calling for the merger of the two government-sponsored enterprises and providing an explicit government guarantee for the new entity’s mortgage-backed securities with private capital taking the first loss. Barry Zigas, director of housing policy at the Consumer Federation of American and one of the co-authors of the paper, said... Read More

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