The Federal Housing Finance Agency is expected to unveil final rules on Private Mortgage Insurer Eligibility Requirements (PMIERs) by the end of March, but there could be a surprise in the works. According to industry lobbyists and MI executives interviewed by Inside Mortgage Finance this week, the FHFA may publish the PMIER rules in tandem with new guidelines on loan-level price adjustments or LLPAs. “The MI industry is...
Falling interest rates and a pending cut in FHA insurance premiums are prompting many lenders to prepare for a boost in refinance activity. “Recent-period lows should stimulate strong refinance activity,” said Bard Blackwell, an executive vice president and portfolio business manager at Wells Fargo Home Mortgage. He noted that low yields on 10-year Treasury notes have helped to decrease interest rates on mortgages in recent months. As of press time, the yield on 10-year Treasuries fell...
Now that the hurrahs and uproar over FHA’s reduced annual premiums have died down, analysts are having mixed views regarding its short- and long-term effects on private mortgage insurers. Some analysts predict FHA’s 50 basis-point reduction of the annual mortgage insurance premium charged on 30-year forward loans should have a modest impact on private MI business. The cut should benefit the lower FICO brackets – borrowers with credit scores of 679 and lower – a segment in which private MIs write little business, they suggest. “We believe...
Marc Savitt, president of the National Association of Independent Housing Professionals, pointed to a flaw in the beta version of Rate Checker: it doesn't show the annual percentage rate.
Meanwhile, JPM marked down the asset value of its residential servicing portfolio to $7.436 billion at Dec. 31, 2014, a 10 percent reduction from 3Q14.
One servicing advisor raised an interesting scenario Tuesday: Maybe Bill Erbey will swoop in and buy all of Ocwen’s shares and take the whole thing private.
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