Genworth U.S. Mortgage Insurance said the FHA mortgage insurance premium reduction earlier this year has not had much of an impact on private MI business so far in terms of creating more competition. “I would say competition with FHA is about the same,” said Rohit Gupta, president and CEO of Genworth. “We have seen the FHA price reduction actually having more impact on FHA streamline refis. Borrowers who have gotten into FHA loans three years ago are refinancing into another FHA loan just to reduce their annual payment.” In January, the FHA pared its annual MIP from 1.35 percent down to 0.85 percent to win over first-time homebuyers and other qualified borrowers. While Gupta emphasized that on the purchase side there hasn’t been that big of an impact yet, he said “we might have seen a little bit of an impact in the first quarter but nothing significant yet.” He added there are a lot more ...
It stands to reason that by waiving the charge that Freddie might take in less revenue, but a GSE spokesman said as a financial matter, “it’s not material.”
The former analyst said Freddie has “an inferior security [MBS] necessitating the need for a lot of time and expense to create a common securitization platform…”
All three mortgage-production channels saw increased volume during the first quarter of 2015, but brokers made the most of the rising market, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance ranking and analysis. Mortgage brokers produced an estimated $39.0 billion of home mortgages during the first three months of 2015, an increase of 14.7 percent over the fourth quarter. That pushed the broker share of originations to 10.8 percent, the sector’s highest market share since 2010. Retail production facilities did...[Includes five data tables]
Conforming loan limits could go up for the first time in years as the Federal Housing Finance Agency formally announced plans to use one of its own home price indexes to calculate changes. “Given the rising prices, it is now important that FHFA formally establish the specific methodology it will use for tracking prices and adjusting the baseline loan limit,” the agency said in a public notice seeking feedback. The Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 prevents...
Six months into the latest representations-and-warranties framework from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, lenders said they appreciate the added clarity but are approaching the changes with caution as more transparency is still needed. The new rules, announced by the government-sponsored enterprises in November 2014, were made to ease lenders’ concerns about repurchase requests for loans that contain data inaccuracies or misrepresentations. During last week’s secondary market conference sponsored by the Mortgage Bankers Association, Jeremy Potter, general counsel and chief compliance officer at Norcom Mortgage, said...
RSS