An increasing number of mortgage lenders have eased up on their underwriting standards recently and are likely to continue doing so in the months ahead in order to counter cooling consumer demand for residential financing, according to a new survey from government-sponsored enterprise Fannie Mae. Decreased housing affordability and loan profitability, coupled with increased competition, are driving the expansion of the credit box. Lenders also cited reduced ...
The Federal Housing Finance Agency proposed new single-family and multifamily housing goals for the GSEs to take on over the next two years. The current goals expire at the end of the year, so the new benchmarks are for 2018 through 2020. One of the more noticeable changes was that the FHFA wants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to increase the amount of low-income refinances they purchase. Currently, the GSEs’ goal for the amount of low-income refinances is 21 percent of purchases, but that number jumps to 27 percent under the purchase goal. While uncertainty surrounding interest rates remains a factor, the FHFA noted that the low-income...
An “excess” servicing deal tied to $117.0 billion of mortgage servicing rights between New Residential Investment Corp. and Ocwen Financial appears to be dragging on longer than expected, causing anxiety in some circles. The transaction – which changes the fees paid to Ocwen resulting in a short-term (gross) gain of $425 million – was unveiled on May 1 and has yet to close. Piper Jaffray analyst Kevin Barker and his team write in a recent report that the deal was slated to be ...
The National Association of Realtors recommended that the Federal Housing Finance Agency create what it called a “mortgage market liquidity fund” as a way to allow Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to rebuild capital. In a letter that went out this week to Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Mel Watt and copied to the Treasury, the trade group expressed concerns about the dwindling capital buffer that’s scheduled to hit zero by Jan. 1, 2018.If Fannie and/or Freddie posts a loss, they will need to tap a line of credit with Treasury. And with no capital reserves, NAR said that the taxpayers will feel the impact while access to credit and homeownership will be stifled.
A number of factors beyond offering mortgages with low interest rates can help boost customer satisfaction, said Strategic Mortgage Finance Group. Officials at the advisory firm suggest that communication with borrowers can help reduce complaints. Garth Graham, a senior partner at Stratmor and head of its marketing strategy and execution practice, said lenders can gain market share by using seven practices to improve borrower satisfaction. His advice was based on ...
As many believe that housing reform has begun to transform from all talk to action, more industry groups are adding their two cents on what a changing housing finance reform landscape should look like. “Now, more than ever since the financial crisis, Washington D.C., is abuzz with talk of housing finance reform,” said the National Association of Federally-Insured Credit Unions. “Credit union loans provide the high quality necessary to improve the salability of the GSEs’ securities,” it added. The trade group said that in the future credit unions should be able to sell directly to the GSEs without having to aggregate their loans through large lenders.
Nationstar Mortgage has moved its offshore call centers back to the U.S. to improve service to customers, particularly those who prefer to deal with domestic company representatives. The Dallas-based nonbank described the move as part of its two-year plan to become more customer-centric and provide more personalized service to its more than 3 million customers. The shift starts with rebranding, which appears designed to create the impression that the customer is dealing with ...
Landon Parsons, senior advisor of Moelis & Company, a firm that proposes a recap and release blueprint for the GSEs, said the government is too involved in housing. Parsons spoke at a Financial Services Roundtable forum earlier this month focused on GSE reform. The senior advisor admitted to having clients with skin in the game, but said he advises “non-litigating GSE shareholders.” He acknowledged that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have a “social good” component to them, but Parsons said many of the policies were flawed. Parsons said most of the GSE reform plans to date have been written by advocacy or special interest groups and have introduced concepts that often require...
loanDepot would like to see more digital closings, according to Dominick Marchetti, the firm’s chief technology officer. The loanDepot official said there has been very little use of e-closings since he first witnessed one over a decade ago in 2002. “It’s fairly disappointing, actually,” Marchetti said, adding that fewer than 100 digital mortgages are closed per month. Only 1,600 of the nation’s 3,800 counties are equipped to handle digital closings, he added. The slow adoption rate ...
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