Nonprime products such as subprime and non-qualified mortgage loans held up better than industry mainstays during the sharp drop in origination volume in the first quarter of this year, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance ranking and analysis. Conventional conforming remained the biggest component of the market, accounting for 53.0 percent of first-lien mortgage originations in the first three months of 2017. But the estimated $204.0 billion of such loans produced during the period was down 36.6 percent from the fourth quarter. Government-insured lending was...[Includes two data tables]
The latest twist in the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s enforcement of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act involves certain co-marketing activities. It has recently come to light that the CFPB is investigating Zillow for possible RESPA violations apparently having to do with the firm’s practice of co-marketing with loan officers, real estate agents and mortgage lenders. “For years, many industry participants wondered if allowing their real estate agents or loan officers to engage in co-marketing on Zillow Group applications and websites posed a risk to their companies under RESPA. The industry may soon know the answer,” Richard Andreano, a partner at the Ballard Spahr law firm in Washington, DC, noted in a recent online blog post. Andreano’s post cited...
Performance of non-QM loans has been strong, buoyed by good house-price appreciation and the fact there have been no lawsuits based on the ability-to-repay rule.
Deutsche noted that after years of a steady broad-based housing market recovery “investors are now facing severe shortages in distressed housing pipelines.”
This fall will mark – unless there’s divine intervention or a Kumbaya moment in Washington – the ninth anniversary of the federal takeover of Fannie and Freddie.
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