President-elect Donald Trump’s business background could help address two of the biggest challenges confronting the housing finance industry today: limited credit availability and a shortage in the supply of the housing stock, according to Laurie Goodman, director of the Urban Institute’s Housing Finance Policy Center. “Mortgage credit availability is an issue we have repeatedly written about,” said Goodman in a recent online blog post. Some of her previous research has shown that “the market is taking less than half the credit risk it was taking during 2001, a period of reasonable credit standards,” she noted. And other HFPC research has shown...

American International Group is working to “rebalance its exposure to residential mortgages” after the company’s sale of United Guaranty, a private mortgage insurer. Douglas Dachille, an executive vice president and CIO at AIG, detailed a number of plans late last week in a presentation to investors. He said the insurance giant is structuring direct investments in residential and commercial mortgages and other whole loans. “The team is...

When deciding which lender to work for, high-performing loan originators put an emphasis on companies that have the infrastructure to help originate mortgages, according to a survey of LOs by Floify. The company, which provides a communication portal for lenders, borrowers and others involved in the origination process, recently surveyed LOs on recruitment and retention issues. The findings focused on LOs with at least $21.0 million in annual origination volume ...

A recent white paper from VantageScore Solutions claiming that millions of potential mortgage borrowers have been restricted from receiving loans due to “conventional” credit scoring models has prompted a strong response from officials at Fair Isaac. Joanne Gaskin, a senior director in Fair Isaac’s scores and analytics group, published a “truth squad” post on a FICO-related website addressing VantageScore’s claims. “Scoring sparse and old data may give more ...

Mortgage lenders are beginning to harness the power of big data to improve the increasingly expensive and often inefficient loan origination process, according to experts speaking on a panel at the recent Mortgage Bankers Association annual convention. Loan officer productivity has declined overall and varies greatly, according to Garth Graham, senior partner at the Stratmor Group. The top 40 percent of LOs generate 78 percent of mortgage originations, according to ...

The FHA can be more flexible in insuring condominiums without increasing risk to the Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund, according to a new analysis from the Urban Institute. The FHA proposed a rule in September that would give it more flexibility in formulating its condo rules. Specifically, FHA proposed to establish a permissible, minimum owner-occupancy range of 25 to 75 percent, while keeping the option of setting a minimum threshold within that range as ...

Through three quarters this year, Quicken Loans was the top lender of FHA mortgages and Freedom Mortgage was the top VA mortgage originator.

Average prices on non-distressed properties sold in October were down 1.8 percent from the September and off 4.1 percent August.

Eight of the top 10 jumbo lenders had declines in jumbo originations on a quarterly basis in the third quarter.

The CFPB’s appeal asserts that the court’s ruling on the constitutionality of the agency’s structure ought to be reconsidered because it “sets up what may be the most important separation-of-powers case in a generation.”