The mortgage market’s shift from a focus on refinances to purchase mortgages won’t be enough to prompt an increase in purchase-mortgage originations in 2014, according to industry economists. The Mortgage Bankers Association revised its origination projections last week, predicting that purchase-mortgage originations will decline by 4.0 percent in 2014 compared with the previous year. An estimated $680 billion in purchase mortgages ... [Includes one data chart]
Reset issues in the government’s Home Affordable Modification Program will begin to surface in 2016 and worsen in later years, but the impact will be less severe than predicted, according to a new commentary by the Urban Institute. Analysts with the institute’s Housing Finance Policy Center said HAMP resets will be a challenge for many borrowers, particularly those who received the steepest interest rate reduction. “However, we are likely years away from ...
Mortgage credit tightened slightly in April, according to the latest Mortgage Credit Availability Index from the Mortgage Bankers Association, a measure which analyzes underwriting trends in data from the AllRegs Market Clarity product. The index slipped from 114.0 in March to 113.8 in April, after increasing for each of the first three months of the year. A decline in the MCAI indicates that lending standards are tightening, while increases in the index are indicative of a loosening ...
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are moving forward slowly on the common securitization platform even after the Federal Housing Finance Agency recently narrowed the project, according to an agency official. Bob Ryan, a special advisor to the FHFA, told attendees at last week’s Mortgage Bankers Association Secondary Market Conference that the development of a common GSE securitization platform would take several years. The Finance Agency’s 2014 strategic plan for the GSEs includes clarifying the scope of the CSP project, which has been in the works for over a year.
Mortgage lenders will benefit from a reduced risk of loan repurchase owing to the easing of borrower performance standards mandated earlier this month by the Federal Housing Finance Agency, according to a report from Fitch Ratings. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, at the direction of their conservator, announced a narrow adjustment in how loans with minor payment problems can still qualify for buyback relief if they are current 36 months after origination. The new framework also provides buyback protection for mortgages that come clean in the GSEs’ quality control checks and an alternative to automatic repurchase of loans when private mortgage insurance is canceled.
Industry trade groups are calling on the Federal Housing Finance Agency and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to be more transparent about how they plan to use the information the agencies want to collect to build the National Mortgage Database. Earlier this year, the FHFA announced it will begin to collect additional, more specific and personal information on borrowers and loans as part of the National Mortgage Database project the agency launched with the CFPB in 2012. An FHFA announcement in the Federal Register noted that under a “revised system of records,” the database will begin collecting demographic and personal contact info for borrowers and their households, as well as loan-level data on mortgage performance.
An East Coast-based warehouse executive, requesting anonymity, said he has approached his credit board about such a change, and his waiting to hear back from them.
Only about 27.7 percent of Ginnie Mae first-quarter volume were refinance loans, and the refi share of the overall market fell to an estimated 44.3 percent, Inside Mortgage Finance found.
Banks that extend warehouse lines of credit to nonbank originators saw their commitment levels fall 39 percent in the first quarter compared to the same period a year earlier, yet another sign that the origination market was extremely weak during the first three months of 2014. On a sequential basis, commitments dropped a more benign 10.8 percent, but it’s not unusual for some firms to keep a line open, even if they’re not utilizing their power to borrow. According to Inside Mortgage Finance estimates, banks and nonbanks had $27.0 billion in warehouse commitments on their books as of March 31, compared to $31.0 billion on December 31, and $45.0 billion a year ago. One active warehouse bank had...[Includes one data chart]
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