Underwriting Standards
By Ryan Schuette | 05/11/2012
More homeowners continue to reap benefits from the newly modified Home Affordable Refinance Program, with 79 percent of homeowners with government-backed mortgages either keeping the same level of mortgage debt as before or reducing it over the first quarter. Of those homeowners, Freddie Mac found recently, 79 percent held onto the same level of debt for first-lien home mortgages, while 21 percent of homeowners shaved off dollars from their principal balance. The share of borrowers keeping their original loan amounts hovered at the highest level in the 26-year history of the survey.
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By Ryan Schuette | 05/11/2012
The Obama administration made another push Friday to expand refinancing opportunities for homeowners, with HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan behind the effort to adopt any one of three bills currently in Congress. Officials told reporters in a teleconference Friday that President Barack Obama would appear with a family in Nevada later that day to tout the need for a wider refinance net. The HUD secretary outlined three bills before Congress that seek to streamline the refinance application process and increase servicer competition by reducing barriers.
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By Ryan Schuette | 05/10/2012
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau unveiled new rulemaking proposals Thursday that would require background checks for mortgage originators and complement a previous rule that prohibits loan officers from steering borrowers to higher-priced products. Together with these rules, others would provide consumers with discounts for paying mortgage origination points, mandate comparison plans for those interested in tracking different products, and ban brokerage firms from charging fees that vary by the loan size.
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By Ryan Schuette | 05/08/2012
Solvency issues re-emerged for the Federal Housing Administration in a hearing convened Tuesday by the Senate Banking Committee, with HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan calling for lower loan-to-value thresholds and more servicer competition to expand refinance opportunities. The hearing follows a bill by Sens. Barbara Boxer and Robert Menendez to roll back refinancing barriers for homeowners with GSE-held mortgages and featured the legislation as lawmakers discussed solutions to the housing crisis. The hearing quickly turned to servicer competition.
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By Krista Franks Brock | 05/07/2012
Genworth Financial, Inc., a Fortune 500 insurance holding company, announced Monday that its mortgage insurance division is enacting several adjustments to its underwriting guidelines. The primary goals of the newly announced guidelines are to reduce costs for lenders issuing Genworth insurance products and expand eligibility for conventional mortgage loans with down payments of less than 20 percent.
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By Mark Lieberman, Five Star Institute Economist | 04/30/2012
With an upsurge in demand, banks resumed tightening standards for residential mortgage loans, the Federal Reserve said Monday in a quarterly survey for bank lending standards. According to the survey, a net 30.2 percent of bank surveyed in the Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey saw increased demand in the first quarter for traditional mortgage loans compared with a net 3.8 percent reporting stronger demand in the fourth quarter. The survey found that a net 1.9 percent of survey respondents also reported tightening loan standards.
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By Ryan Schuette | 04/27/2012
Twenty-four trade groups and associations signed off on a comment letter Friday that calls on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to give creditors more legal leeway when it comes to Qualified Mortgages. The two-page letter – headed up by the American Bankers Association, Mortgage Bankers Association, National Association of Home Builders, and National Association of Realtors, among others – framed forthcoming rules around credit availability and sound home loans. Influential trade groups continue to criticize the rule.
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By Esther Cho | 04/03/2012
A lawsuit was filed against GFI Mortgage Bankers alleging it charged African American and Hispanic borrowers higher interest rates and fees on mortgage loans because of their race rather than their creditworthiness, the U.S. Justice Department announced in a statement Tuesday. The complaint was filed in the Southern District of New York under the federal Fair Housing Act and Equal Credit Opportunity Act. According to the statement, GFI knew that its loan officers priced loans based on factors that resulted in thousands of dollars in overcharges for minority borrowers.
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By Ryan Schuette | 03/30/2012
Mortgage insurance companies wrote $5.4 billion new pools of risk in February, a shift from $5 billion last month. Mortgage Insurance Companies of America revealed Friday that the latest figures reflect a climb up from $4.2 billion. The companies included Genworth Mortgage Insurance Corp., Mortgage Guaranty Insurance Corp., and Radian Guaranty Inc. MICA members said that their certificates reached 24,879 borrowers with intentions to buy or refinance their homes last month. Insurance-in-force for the companies roughly amounted to $398 billion for February.
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By Ryan Schuette | 03/29/2012
Higher gasoline prices and concerns about Chinese growth fed bond investments, driving down mortgage rates once again amid worrying signs about the economy. Mortgage giant Freddie Mac found rates for the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage falling from 4.08 percent last week to 3.99 percent this week. The company said the 15-year loan fell from 3.30 percent last week to 3.23 percent this week, a change of pace from 4.09 percent seen year-over-year. Five-year and 1-year adjustable-rate mortgages meanwhile slid from 2.96 percent and 2.84 percent to 2.90 percent and 2.78 percent, respectively.
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