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Inside Mortgage Finance

April 6, 2017

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GSE Business Down Sharply in Early 2017, But Market Still Running Stronger Than a Year Ago

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac saw substantial declines in new single-family business during the first quarter of 2017, but the purchase-mortgage side showed some life in March, according to a new analysis and ranking by Inside Mortgage Finance. The two government-sponsored enterprises guaranteed $218.22 billion of single-family mortgage-backed securities during the first three months of the year. That was down 27.1 percent from the fourth quarter total of $299.25 billion – the biggest quarterly flow in GSE business since the second quarter of 2013. The refinance market was...[Includes three data tables] Read More

For Some, a Treacherous Start to 2017. A Careful Eye on Expenses. Time to Reenter the FHA Market?

Residential loan production picked up steam in March after a tepid January and February, while originators – both banks and nonbanks alike – kept a close eye on expenses in an effort to maintain positive cash flow. Bill Dallas, CEO and president of Skyline Home Loans, Calabasas, CA, said his company funded $650 million in the first quarter, a modest 5.8 percent decline from the same period a year ago. Roughly 75 percent of Skyline’s production was purchase loans, the exact opposite of what the company did in the year-ago quarter. “Over the past five months, since the election, the landscape has been... Read More

CFPB Doubles Down on its Positions Against PHH Mortgage, Including its RESPA Claims

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau late last week filed its much-anticipated response to the decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to grant the agency’s request for an en banc rehearing in its legal wrangling with PHH Mortgage over allegations of violating the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act. The CFPB made three main arguments. First, the bureau’s structure is constitutional. “Neither the bureau’s single-director structure, nor the for-cause removal provision, unduly interferes with the president’s ability to take care that the laws be faithfully executed” under the U.S. Constitution, it said. If the court were to decide that the agency’s structure is unconstitutional, the bureau added... Read More

‘Digital’ Lender Better Mortgage Aims for IPO And Tries to Triple Loan Production This Year

Most lenders are usually shy when asked whether they would like to go public. But not Better Mortgage, a barely one-year-old “digital” mortgage lender that could triple loan production this year to $1.5 billion. “Yes, we’d like to go public,” company founder and CEO Vishal Garg told Inside MortgageFinance. “This company should be owned by the public.” As for when, that’s a different matter. The last time a nonbank mortgage lender sold... Read More

Few Small Banks Have Sold Mortgage Servicing Rights Due to Capital Treatment or Regulatory Requirements

A shift in recent years in servicing from banks to nonbanks has been pinned on the capital treatment for bank holdings of mortgage servicing rights, among other issues. However, a survey conducted by the American Bankers Association found that few small banks are selling MSR due to capital standards or other regulatory requirements. The ABA surveyed 159 banks as part of its annual real-estate lending survey. About 76.0 percent of the participating institutions had assets of less than $1.0 billion. Only 2.0 percent of respondents said... Read More

VA, Industry Seek Solution to Appraiser Shortage, Problem Causing Long Wait Times, Delayed Closing

The Department of Veterans Affairs this week expressed willingness to work with Congress and mortgage industry participants to find a solution to the agency’s ongoing appraiser shortage. Testifying during a hearing held by the House Veterans Affairs’ Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity, representatives of the VA Home Loan Guaranty Service, the National Association of Realtors, the Appraisal Institute and Clear Capital said the shortage of appraisers has led to long delays in obtaining appraisals and loan closings, as well as high appraisal costs. The VA appraisal program has been... Read More

GSE Reps-and-Warrant Relief Made Big Strides In 2016, Freddie to Offer Appraisal Waiver Next

Freddie Mac is set to implement a waiver aimed at reducing lender anxiety about potential buybacks related to appraisal issues, matching a similar policy already implemented by Fannie Mae. The initiatives by the two government-sponsored enterprises are aimed at one of the last major bugaboos in the representations and warranties lenders take on when they sell loans. Lender repurchases have declined dramatically over the past few years as Fannie and Freddie cleaned up buyback disputes related to loans originated before the housing market collapse. In 2016, lender repurchases and other indemnifications fell... Read More

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