Home-equity lending cooled off in the third quarter of 2016 as consumers took advantage of low interest rates to refinance rather than draw down more second-mortgage debt. Lenders originated an estimated $50.7 billion of home-equity loans during the third quarter, including home-equity lines of credit and closed-end second mortgages. Although that was down 5.2 percent from the second quarter, it still marked the second highest three-month volume since the housing market collapse in 2008. And depository institutions, the dominant lenders in the HEL market, reported...[Includes three data tables]
The Federal Reserve late last week reported a modest 0.6 percent increase in the volume of single-family mortgages outstanding during the third quarter of 2016, the fifth straight quarterly gain in a market finally recovering from the housing meltdown. Still, at $10.123 trillion, the supply of mortgage debt outstanding was $1.118 trillion below the level it reached at the end of 2007. Most of the growth in the third quarter came...[Includes two data tables]
Appraisal-related issues cause more than one out of every 10 purchase-mortgage applications to be denied, according to CoreLogic. Below-contract appraisals comprised 11.3 percent of the first-lien purchase-loan appraisals ordered through the CoreLogic/FNC Collateral Management System, according to Yanling Mayer, director of research in CoreLogic’s office of chief economist. The CMS is a workflow and compliance platform used by many lenders, servicers and appraisal management companies. Mayer noted...
With rates at the highest they’ve been in 27 months, mortgage lenders have to make sure they keep their costs as low as possible to be competitive. At the same time, they have to retain and attract the most productive loan officers, while still staying within the bounds of the loan originator compensation rule from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. During a webinar sponsored by Inside Mortgage Finance this week, Paul Hindman, managing director at Grid Origination Services, said loan officer recruiting is not just about the Benjamins. “In no particular order, should they decide to explore, loan officers will evaluate and compare the following when assessing the right model match: company brand and culture ([including] mission, vision and values); compensation clarity, [and] loan products and consistent rates/pricing,” he said. Also important are...
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will launch pilot programs to purchase personal loans tied to manufactured housing under the final duty-to-serve regulation released this week by the Federal Housing Finance Agency. The duty-to-serve requirement was mandated by Congress eight years ago but has never been implemented. The government-sponsored enterprises will devise three-year plans for serving low- and moderate income households in three underserved areas: manufactured housing, affordable housing preservation and rural housing. Like the annual affordable housing goals set for the GSEs, the duty-to-serve requirement does not include...