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Inside Mortgage Finance

July 27, 2017

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Mortgage Originations Surged in 2Q17 as Home Buying Kicked Into Gear; Market Share Shakeup

Mortgage origination volume was up sharply in the second quarter of 2017, but total production this year still trailed the pace set in 2016 because of slumping refinance activity. An estimated $455.0 billion of first-lien mortgages were originated in the second quarter, according to an exclusive new Inside Mortgage Finance ranking and analysis. That was up 18.2 percent from the January-March cycle, but production over the first six months of 2017 totaled just $840.0 billion, off 6.7 percent from the same period last year. Most other mortgage market indicators sent...[Includes two data tables] Read More

Lawmakers Urge HUD Secretary Carson to Reduce FHA Loan Premiums by 25 bps, Private MIs Say No

House Democrats are trying to persuade Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson to reinstate a 25-basis-point FHA mortgage insurance premium cut scheduled under the Obama administration, citing continuing improvement of the FHA Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund. In a letter to Carson last week, 21 Democrats led by Rep. Joyce Beatty, OH, called upon the secretary to place homeownership within the reach of families, especially millennials and minorities, by lowering the FHA annual MIP rates to the same level that was announced during the waning days of the Obama administration. On Jan. 9, 2017, encouraged by the strong recovery of the MMI Fund, former HUD Secretary Julian Castro announced... Read More

Industry Officials Call for Revisions to CFPB’s Many Mortgage Regulations

While policymakers in Washington, DC, are paying renewed attention to housing-finance reform, some industry representatives took advantage of the opportunity provided by a related hearing on Capitol Hill to also urge changes be made to a number of the mortgage-related rules promulgated in recent years by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Bond giant PIMCO issued a report that called for a handful of key revisions to the mortgage regulatory landscape before any reform of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is undertaken. “To bring capital back to the private mortgage market and ensure credit is extended... Read More

Small Banks and Community Lenders Support Reform Without Creating Numerous Guarantors

Getting Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac out of limbo should not result in the creation of multiple guarantors, according to community lenders testifying at a housing-finance reform hearing in the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee last week. “The worst outcome in … reform would be to allow a small number of mega-firms to assume the size and scale of Fannie and Freddie under the pretense of creating a private sector solution strong enough to assure the markets in all economic conditions,” said Jack Hopkins, president and CEO of CorTrust Bank, on behalf of the Independent Community Bankers Association. Any plan that promotes consolidation is... Read More

CFPB to Propose Substantive Changes to its Mortgage Servicing Rule, Latest Agenda Reveals

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau plans to make some significant, but as yet unspecified, changes to its mortgage servicing rule sometime this fall, in response to concerns raised by the industry, the bureau revealed in a blog posting about its latest semiannual rulemaking agenda. The agency said it is “considering concerns raised by industry participants regarding a few substantive aspects of the mortgage servicing rule that we used in August 2016. These aspects may be posing particular complexities for implementation that were not anticipated in the course of the original rulemaking. We expect to issue a proposal to make one or more substantive changes to the rule in response to these concerns this fall – perhaps as early as September.” Edward Mills, an analyst with FBR Capital Markets & Co., said... Read More

Industry Groups Likely to Endorse House Flood Insurance Reform Bill After House Panel Agrees to Proposed Changes

The House Financial Services Committee agreed to make key changes to flood insurance reform legislation clearing the way for industry groups to endorse the bill. The committee’s most recent draft includes provisions that would retain “grandfathering,” a policy that protects policyholders from significant rate increases when the Federal Emergency Management Agency periodically revises its flood maps, and allow federal flood insurance coverage of new homes built in 100-year floodplains. The committee also proposes... Read More

NAR Pushes to Protect the Homeownership Incentive Provided by the Mortgage Interest Tax Deduction

The Trump administration and many Republicans in Congress are working on tax-reform legislation that could have a significant impact on the utility of the mortgage interest deduction, prompting warnings from the National Association of Realtors. “The decimation of the mortgage interest and real property tax deductions would very likely cause a significant plunge in the value of all houses,” said NAR President William Brown in a recent letter to Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-UT, chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance. Currently, homeowners who itemize their deductions can exclude... Read More

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