The home-equity lending business quietly built some momentum over the past three years after nosediving in the aftermath of the housing-market meltdown, but its future growth will depend on several moving parts.
Several residential lenders suffered through a challenging start to the new year but loan production is starting to warm up as the spring homebuying season nears. Still, higher interest rates are causing consternation with many shops openly worried about plummeting refis and lower profit margins.
Freddie Mac this week rolled out a new pilot program with the help of Arch Capital Group, the parent company of the nation’s largest mortgage insurance firm. But the pilot – dubbed IMAGIN for “integrated mortgage insurance” – is already stirring controversy.
The significant gains of nonbank mortgage lenders in the government-backed mortgage market suggests that nonbank failures could be quite costly to the government and taxpayers, according to a paper authored by three Federal Reserve Board economists and two university researchers.
The Federal Housing Finance Agency’s auditor concluded that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac low-downpayment programs had a high compliance rate but fell somewhat short when it came to ensuring the homeowner education component was met.
As the Federal Housing Finance Agency continues to evaluate alternative credit scoring mechanisms, some experts argue that the agency isn’t doing enough to promote an updated scoring system while others say the current system works just fine.
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