Pacific Investment Management Company published an opinion piece this week calling for changes in the non-agency market before policymakers enact reforms that affect the government-sponsored enterprises. PIMCO was also critical of other GSE reform proposals. “Without a functioning private mortgage market, it will be nearly impossible for the GSEs to shrink their footprint without significant disruption to the housing market and to the underlying homeownership rate,” PIMCO said. PIMCO was...
Although reform of the government-sponsored enterprises is highly unlikely this year, community lenders went to Capitol Hill this week, testifying that equal opportunity in the secondary market and preserving the cash window are sacred tenets that cannot be compromised. At a GSE reform hearing late this week, Sen. Mike Crapo, R-ID, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, called small lenders “fixtures in their communities” with local knowledge and expertise. “As we prepare to reform the system we must understand how small lenders access the market,” he said. Many community lenders access...
Since the introduction of the single-security effort, pricing differences between Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac MBS have just about been eliminated, thanks in part to prepayment speeds converging. A paper recently published by the Urban Institute found that back in 2012 and 2013, Freddie’s 3.0, 3.5, and 4.0 percent coupons traded at more than a $0.30 discount to Fannie Mae’s. But, by 2014 and 2015 that number narrowed to about $0.15, and by early 2017 the pricing differences had largely come together. The authors called...
Affordability and job availability are driving millennials to seek homes in more affordable markets, particularly in the upper Midwest, according to Ellie Mae data for the month of May. Ellie Mae’s Millennial Tracker, which monitors millennial mortgage applications during specific times, found that the higher percentages of loans made to millennial borrowers are in Hutchinson and Austin, MN, and Wahpeton and Williston, ND. Anniston-Oxford-Jacksonville, AL, rounded out the top-five markets. Ellie Mae defines millennials as applicants born between 1980 and 1999. Data showed that 48 percent of millennial borrowers who closed loans in May were single. In Hutchinson, for example, the majority of borrowers were single men. “This suggests millennials may be embracing homeownership in these areas for reasons other than what we have historically seen, which was family formation,” explained ...
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