A highway funding bill signed by President Obama late last week included a provision aimed at collecting more taxes related to interest payments on mortgages. The mortgage industry noted that it won concessions on the provision, delaying the implementation date and limiting the amount of data to be collected. The brunt of the new revenue also looks as though it will be collected from borrowers. H.R. 3236, the Surface Transportation and Veterans Health Care Choice Improvement Act of 2015, included a seemingly simple provision regarding the reporting of mortgage interest on IRS Form 1098. Servicers use the form to report mortgage interest of $600 or more received during a year. The highway funding bill will require...
With house prices rising over the past few years, as many as 15 million homeowners appear to be underestimating how much equity they’re actually sitting on, according to a new analysis released this week from Fannie Mae. The percent of homeowners estimated by CoreLogic to have significant home equity was much higher than the percent who actually perceived themselves as having equity in Fannie consumer surveys. The government-sponsored enterprise attributes this to a lack of access to credible home value equity tools coupled with a lack of knowledge on the homeowner’s part. This means...
The House Financial Services Committee has passed a number of mortgage-related bills designed to ease lenders’ liabilities by simplifying rules, reducing complexity and compliance costs, while a streamlined regulatory relief package gained new momentum in the Senate. Late last week, the committee reported out the following bills: H.R. 1210, (Portfolio Lending and Mortgage Access Act); H.R. 1941 (Financial Institutions Examination Fairness and Reform Act); and H.R. 3192 (Homebuyers Assistance Act). H.R. 1210 would modify...
Residential lenders funded $445 billion in the second quarter, one of the best readings in two years, according to figures compiled by Inside Mortgage Finance.
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