Three analysts at Wells Fargo Securities discussed in a new report this week what could happen to the agency MBS market as a result of pending tax reform, one version of which was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives this week. As always, the devil is in the details; hence, the bitter in-fighting among entrenched interests on Capitol Hill.

Republican leaders in the Senate detailed their tax reform legislation late last week, with some differences compared with the bill making its way through the House. While the Senate bill would leave the existing mortgage interest deduction largely untouched, participants in the housing industry raised a number of other concerns.

Industry stakeholders are increasingly dour on the prospect of Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Mel Watt acting to rectify the government-sponsored enterprises’ capital buffer issue before yearend, but there’s growing hope that bipartisan reform legislation might be enacted next year.

Regulatory relief got a sudden and surprising boost on Capitol Hill early this week when the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee unexpectedly passed a bipartisan package of provisions making it easier for lenders to extend mortgage credit to borrowers.

Texas sticks out like a sore thumb in its regulation of home-equity lending, but the swelling will be reduced somewhat after Lone Star voters approved an amendment to the state’s constitution that will loosen some of the rules.

Members of the House who are drafting housing-finance reform legislation are tackling a number of issues that impact the non-agency market. At a hearing last week by the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Housing and Insurance, Chairman Sean Duffy, R-WI, said the panel’s recent hearings were aimed at getting feedback for a new legislative proposal. Duffy also stressed that the effort should be bipartisan. “I believe that if we’re going to be successful not just in ...

A proposal in the House Republican tax reform bill significantly lowering the corporate tax rate, at first glance, may seem to put mortgage real estate investment trusts at a competitive disadvantage with non-REITs. However, the disparity would remain beneficial for REITs, according to tax experts.

Industry stakeholders are calling for changes to some of the mortgage- and housing-related provisions in the House Republicans’ proposed tax reform bill. On Nov. 9, 2017, the House Ways and Means Committee passed H.R. 1, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, retaining provisions that may significantly reduce homeownership tax incentives. At the same time, Senate Republicans unveiled their tax reform package, which limits the mortgage interest deduction, eliminates state and local tax deductions and nearly doubles the standard deduction, among other provisions. The Mortgage Bankers Association, National Association of Realtors and the National Association of Home Builders each had a list of concerns but were uniformly opposed to proposed changes to the mortgage-interest deduction. Among other things, the bill would cap the mortgage-interest deduction (MID) at $500,000 for new ...

FHA lenders think the new Loan Review System is a “modern and streamlined system” that is less user-friendly than Neighborhood Watch, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. In a letter to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the MBA called on the FHA to continue its ongoing discussion with lenders and other industry stakeholders on how the improve the LRS and its response timelines. Implemented last May, the LRS is an electronic platform for monitoring and reviewing the quality of single-family mortgages that FHA has insured. It replaced the post-endorsement technical review performed by the FHA Connection/Underwriting Review System (URS), review functions for post-closing test cases submitted by direct endorsement lenders, and lender self-reporting functions in Neighborhood Watch. The LRS also includes a defect taxonomy, which features a list of ...

Tax reform legislation detailed last week by Republican leaders in the House would have a nega-tive impact on the housing market, according to some industry analysts. The bill prompted a strong re-action from industry participants, who are hoping for a variety of changes in the legislation.