If the GSEs required stricter energy codes on new homes, savings on utility bills would cover borrowers’ costs within three years, a coalition of advocacy groups said in a letter to the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

To obtain FHLBank membership, an institution must hold at least 10% of its assets in residential mortgage assets.

A new option in Desktop Underwriter allows lenders to pre-qualify borrowers with a single soft pull credit file. However, a hard pull tri-merge credit report will still be required with the actual loan application.

Several of the new rules FHFA is expected to propose will affect the Federal Home Loan Banks.

Andrew Davidson & Co. executive Richard Cooperstein says the regulatory capital requirements for the GSEs should be set at 1.5 times risk capital, about 1.13%.

Freddie clarifies how servicers should handle COVID-19 flex modifications for borrowers who recently became delinquent. Fannie announces a tool to compute the monthly income of self-employed borrowers.

Black consumers are more than twice as likely as white consumers to say they worry about their home being in a flood.

The enterprise will offer new single-family green disclosures that will allow investors to easily identify mortgage-backed securities that consist of loans eligible for Fannie’s green bonds programs.

A coalition of most of the major mortgage industry participants says FHFA and the GSEs should be more transparent about how they assessed and validated the new credit score models.

In general, appraisers can adjust down a comparable valuation dollar for dollar with the value of seller concessions.