MBA Newslinks Archive

“Increasing diversity and inclusion in our industry isn’t just the right thing to do, it is imperative to the future of a safe and robust housing system. The demographics of the country are changing, and MBA’s member companies are committed to changing with it to ensure that they can effectively serve all their customers and the market at large.”–Lisa Haynes, MBA Senior Vice President, CFO and Chief Diversity Office, on a partnership with Fannie Mae to promote opportunities for entry-level professionals.

“Refinance activity was lower, but we did see government refinance applications increase, driven solely by a 12 percent rise in FHA applications. Mortgage rates right now are comparable to the average rate of 4.10 percent for June, but refinances last week were 7 percent lower than last month. This is an indication that as we see rates lower for longer, borrowers need more of a drop in rates to consider refinancing.”–MBA Associate Vice President of Economic and Industry Forecasting Joel Kan.

“Today’s announcement is not the end of our efforts to make sure consumers’ sensitive personal information is safe and secure. The incident at Equifax underscores the evolving cyber security threats confronting both private and government computer systems and actions they must take to shield the personal information of consumers. Too much is at stake for the financial security of the American people to make these protections anything less than a top priority.”–Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Kathy Kraninger.

“Record prices appear to have kept June sales figures from topping a strong May. Nevertheless, there are indications, including the return of very favorable mortgage rates, that the pace could pick up in July. Several encouraging longer-term trends-ongoing demand, improving inventory levels, low interest rates–are helping the market make incremental progress on multiple fronts. But supply remains a concern, so we need more homes to be built.”–Adam Contos, CEO of RE/MAX, Denver.

“Declining home sales and homebuilding activity, coupled with slower gains in permitting for improvement projects, will put the brakes on remodeling growth over the coming year. However, if falling mortgage interest rates continue to incentivize home sales, refinancing, and ultimately remodeling activity, the slowdown may soften some.”–Chris Herbert, Managing Director of the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University.

“The second quarter of every year has always shown a quarterly increase, going as far back as 2005. So, with mortgage rates dipping to new lows, it’s no surprise that people were wanting to buy a home, even if prices were at their peak. We expect to see milder home prices in the coming quarters.”–Todd Teta, chief product officer with ATTOM Data Solutions, Irvine, Calif.

“Kristy is an active MBA member and industry leader who will serve MBA and its members exceptionally well. She is results-driven and brings a unique perspective, vision and leadership skill set. I’m excited to have her on our leadership ladder.”–MBA Chairman Christopher M. George, President and CEO of CMG Financial, San Ramon, Calif., on MBA’s nomination of Kristy Fercho of Flagstar Bank, Troy, Mich., as 2020 MBA Vice Chair.

“Over the past decade, the regulatory change experienced by the mortgage lending industry has been “massive in both its breadth and complexity. “This has not occurred in isolation, but rather transpired during a time of equally rapid technological change. Together, these developments have had a significant economic impact on mortgage lenders and servicers. Consequently, it is now necessary for the Bureau to assess whether its rulemaking activities have achieved their statutory objectives in a way that does not unnecessarily burden regulated entities or unduly restrict consumer access to safe and affordable mortgage credit.”–MBA Senior Vice President of Residential Policy and Member Engagement Pete Mills, in a letter to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

“While we did downgrade our forecast for 2019 as a whole, we are expecting solid performance for the summer months with U.S. air travel bookings and vacation intentions on the incline.”–STR Senior Vice President of Lodging Insights Jan Freitag.

“At a high level, the role of federal regulators with respect to credit scoring models should be to ensure such models exceed a minimum threshold of predictive capacity, while also remaining in compliance with fair lending requirements. If the CFPB or any other regulator was able to regularly change the weighting of various model inputs, or remove certain inputs altogether, the predictive capacity of the models could be seriously jeopardized. Such actions would then result in less sustainable mortgage lending, which would harm the very consumers that policymakers and market participants are attempting to better serve.” –MBA Senior Vice President Bill Killmer, in a letter to House Financial Services Committee leadership expressing concerns with provisions in the Clarity in Credit Score Formation Act of 2019, under consideration this week.