The Federal Housing Finance Agency is opening back up the possibility of adding a question about language preference on the Uniform Residential Loan Application. In a request for input issued on May 25, the FHFA is seeking information on a number of potential short-term and long-term improvements to help borrowers not fluent in English better understand the mortgage process. The FHFA is looking for stakeholder views on issues like translating more documents in different languages, education about multilingual housing counselors, using emerging technologies and tracking borrowers’ preferred languages. The FHFA originally suggested data tracking last year and considered including a question about a borrower’s language preference in the Uniform Residential Loan Application to help lenders and...
The GSEs’ reperforming loan programs are making inroads with both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac announcing recent RPL transactions to help reduce the amount of illiquid assets in their portfolios.Fannie introduced its first reperforming loan sale back in November and the program has continued to gain popularity with each sale. The program has grown from its first sale, which totaled $789.2 million in unpaid principal balance to the most recent transaction of approximately $3.0 billion. The pool included approximately 13,700 loans that were previously delinquent, but are performing again with or without the use of a loan modification.
The demand for single-family rental financing will likely grow, said the Urban Institute, on the heels of Fannie Mae completing its first single-family rental securitization deal with a large institutional investor. The GSE has done smaller SFR transactions but this one, a $1 billion deal with Invitation Homes, was billed as a pilot program earlier this year. The Blackstone Group subsidiary, based in Dallas, has a portfolio of about 50,000 homes acquired from foreclosures. It is the largest single-family rental operator in the U.S. These kinds of transactions are expected to increase as investors rely more on leverage to earn an acceptable rate of return, said...
Fannie DUS Provides Additional Data for Multifamily. Fannie Mae announced the creation of DUS Disclose, a new MBS disclosure website that will enhance the transparency and increase the data available for multifamily securities in alignment with the industry. The new platform will replace the existing Multifamily Securities Locator Service and is expected to be available in the fourth quarter of 2017. Fannie Headquarters to Morph into High-End Grocer. As Fannie Mae prepares to vacate its iconic headquarters with a move to downtown Washington in 2018, plans are coming along for the soon-to-be former site of the GSE. Roadside Development announced...
Credit Suisse this week issued a $91.2 million non-agency MBS backed by seasoned FHA mortgages. CSMC 2017-FHA1 marked the first non-agency securitization of re-performing FHA mortgages since 2010. The deal received an A rating from DBRS and an A1 rating from Moody’s Investors Service with subordination of 16.50 percent on the senior tranche. Moody’s cited a number of credit “challenges,” including uncertainty about FHA insurance payouts for liquidated mortgages, insufficient information on loan modifications and weak representations and warranties. The mortgages in the deal have...
While the industry continues to debate the merits of allowing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to build a capital cushion for “zero day” in 2018, investors in MBS have a different agenda: making sure that whatever the future holds for the government-sponsored enterprises, it had better include a federal guarantee on conventional mortgage securities. Without it, the MBS market would suffer greatly – as would residential lending and the sale of new and existing homes. So far, no one knows...
The credit landscape is improving as more lenders introduce new credit-scoring mechanisms and eligibility requirements, but it may not mean much for mortgage origination volume, at least in the short term, according to a new study by mortgage consulting firm the Stratmor Group. The study noted that when faced with slower housing growth due to demographics, affordability, and higher healthcare costs, lenders will look to loosen underwriting standards to feed their production capacity. Rob Chrisman, senior advisor with Stratmor, said many of the “good borrowers” have refinanced and bought homes already, leaving lenders with borrowers of lesser credit quality. “Lenders and investors, too, are...
VantageScore is gaining traction as an alternative to FICO credit scores in consumer lending and structured finance, according to a study by DBRS. Introduced in 2006 as a joint venture among three national credit bureaus – TransUnion, Experian and Equifax – VantageScore was first used in securitization transactions backed by student-loan refinancings. Its transition to consumer loans and structured finance demonstrates industry acceptance as an alternative to the widely used FICO scores, DBRS pointed out. The study compares...
RSS