A recent announcement by the Department of Housing and Urban Development to seek public comment on its 2013 disparate-impact rule is an opportunity for both HUD and the industry to clarify the liability issues it raises, said compliance experts. On May 10, HUD announced it would formally seek public input on whether the disparate-impact regulation is in tune with the Supreme Court of the United States’ 2015 decision in Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs v. Inclusive Communities Project, Inc. The HUD rule affirmed the use of disparate impact to establish liability for violations of the Fair Housing Act. It lays out a three-step approach to determining FHAct liability. The first step requires the plaintiff to demonstrate that a practice or a policy has a discriminatory effect on a protected class of persons. According to the rule, liability may be established even if the ...
Community mortgage lenders called for an investigation of pricing practices of private mortgage insurers regarding their use of volume discounts and other incentives to get more business from lenders selling loans to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. In a letter to Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Mel Watt, the Community Home Lenders Association raised concerns about “pricing disparities” in lender-paid mortgage insurance based on lender size and volume. Such practices may involve better pricing offers to larger lenders or bidding out loan pools based on the percentage of discounts larger lenders get from their customary private MI pricing, the CHLA said. In addition, some private MIs offer special pricing to lenders that agree to do business exclusively with them – a type of proxy for volume discount. The group asked the FHFA, as the regulator of Fannie and Freddie, to investigate whether ...
Production of non-agency jumbo mortgages declined significantly in the first quarter of 2018, according to a new ranking and analysis by Inside Nonconforming Markets. An estimated $60.0 billion of jumbos were originated in the first quarter, down 26.8 percent from the previous period. Jumbo production was also off 13.0 percent from the first three months of 2017. The decline in jumbo volume was greater than the slowdown in the overall mortgage ... [Includes one data chart]
California continues to account for the largest share of non-agency jumbo originations but it lost some market share in 2017, according to an Inside Nonconforming Markets analysis of data from the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act. Some $317.29 billion of jumbos were originated in 2017, down 9.7 percent from the previous year. The analysis is based on originations of first-lien, single-family mortgages, with loan-limits determined at the county level. Originations of ... [Includes one data chart]
Impac Mortgage Holdings is putting more emphasis on originating non-qualified mortgages, with officials noting that the loans offer much better margins than conventional mortgages. Impac originated $248.2 million of non-QMs in the first quarter of 2018, up 5.6 percent from the previous cycle and a 34.7 percent increase from a year ago. Non-QMs accounted for 18.8 percent of Impac’s production in early 2018 compared with a 14.2 percent share in the previous quarter and an ...
Minority borrowers applying for an FHA or VA first-lien purchase mortgage were more likely to be denied than comparable white borrowers, according to an Inside FHA/VA Lending analysis of 2017 Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data. This finding was no surprise because the denial rates reflected the same historical trends for white and minority borrowers over the years. Approximately 727,865 FHA/VA loans went to white borrowers last year. Of the 978,981 government-insured loan applications submitted by white borrowers, 9.07 percent were denied. Of the 231,108 black borrowers who applied for a government-backed home loan, lenders rejected 14.57 percent. Out of the 285,707 FHA/VA loan applications submitted by Hispanics, lenders denied 11.42 percent. Asian borrowers submitted the least number of FHA/VA loan applications, 44,739. Lenders denied 11.36 percent. For FHA, the ... [Chart]
Residential mortgage lending was down in the first quarter of 2018 in every category, according to a new analysis and ranking by Inside Mortgage Finance. [Includes two data charts.]
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