Documents obtained by Inside MBS & ABS reveal that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were required to charge the same “minimum” guaranty fee for single-family guaranty commitments issued on or after Aug. 1. Both government-sponsored enterprises received identical marching orders for minimum g-fees: 44 basis points for 30-year mortgages and 30 bps for 15-year loans. And, according to copies of emails from the Federal Housing Finance Agency following up on the agency’s initial July 29 directive, an unspecified number of Freddie sellers were paying less than the minimum. The names of these sellers were redacted...[Includes one data table]
During the second quarter, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Veterans Affairs home loan guaranty program all saw significant increases in production of “agency jumbo” loans – mortgages with loan amounts exceeding the baseline $417,000 agency loan limit. A new Inside Mortgage Finance analysis reveals that the agencies’ combined jumbo production, including FHA activity, rose 53.3 percent to $36.2 billion during the second quarter. That represented the highest quarterly total since “emergency” high-cost loan limits were established in the aftermath of the financial crisis. The FHA had...[Includes three data tables]
The motivations of buyers and sellers in the mortgage servicing market appear to be at odds, and sellers are hoping for some sort of buyer conversion to light up the market and get more deals. At the Ginnie Mae Summit last week, panelist Michael Ehrlich, senior mortgage specialist at Thomson Reuters, indicated that sellers are itching to see more mortgage servicing rights deals but there are not too many buyers lining up. “The demand from sellers to sell is...
A task force convened by the Mortgage Bankers Association proposed universal principles for loan modification programs across government guarantors, the government-sponsored enterprises and perhaps non-agency mortgages. The “One Modification” standards published late last week aim to provide servicers with a “cohesive framework” to complete loan mods when the Home Affordable Modification Program largely ends after this year. “MBA’s task force recognizes...
Atlantic Bay Mortgage Group recently started offering its loan originators a unique option in terms of compensation: a share of the servicing fee. More than 90 percent of loan originator compensation plans are based on an LO’s volume, according to surveys conducted by Stratmor Group. Atlantic Bay’s Progressive Earnings Plan allows LOs to earn an annuity stream of income from mortgages when the lender retains the servicing. Rebecca Chaney, a senior executive vice president of legal affairs at Atlantic Bay, likened...
Mortgage lenders would be able to extend more credit to traditionally underserved borrowers with greater confidence and sell those loans to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, according to proponents of legislation pending on Capitol Hill. H.R. 4211, the “Credit Score Competition Act of 2015,” introduced by Rep. Ed Royce, R-CA, would allow Fannie and Freddie to consider alternative scoring models when determining whether to purchase a residential mortgage. Further, the Federal Housing Finance Agency would be given...
The FHA has issued long-anticipated rules for approving condominium developments, including the reinstatement of spot approvals and mandatory recertification of condo approvals every three years rather than the current two-year requirement. The rules are designed to make it easier for condo projects to qualify for FHA financing and for borrowers to purchase affordable single-family units with a low 3.5 percent downpayment. The comment period ends on Nov. 28, 2016. The Department of Housing and Urban Development eliminated...