MBA Newslinks Archive

“For [Federal Open Market Committee] actions in September the projection of inflation, not the current pace of inflation, remains the focus of policy. From the FOMC’s view, current low inflation is discounted due to temporary conditions.”
–John Silvia, chief economist with Wells Fargo Securities, Charlotte, N.C.

“A temporary legal safe harbor for lenders will ensure the new requirements are implemented in an orderly manner and that consumers are not confused or, worse yet, impaired in their ability to purchase a home or refinance a loan.”
–From an MBA Mortgage Action Alliance Call to Action urging support for two bills that would grant lenders a temporary safe harbor under the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s TILA/RESPA Integrated Discloaure Rule set to go into effect next month.

“While much of the loosening is for jumbo loan products, the availability of conforming conventional mortgage credit has also somewhat increased, including for mortgages with higher loan-to-value ratios and borrowers with lower credit scores.”
–MBA Chief Economist Mike Fratantoni.

“The language in the certification lacks clarity as to the insurability of a loan and doesn’t embody a reasonable diligence standard for FHA underwriters, address the significance of any errors in terms of risk to the FHA or allow for an opportunity for lenders to correct any mistakes.  This lack of clarity continues to leave the door open to possible enforcement actions, and also encourages federal agencies, other than FHA, to take action against lenders. Absent clarity, some lenders may continue to re-evaluate which borrowers they are willing to extend FHA backed lending to and at what prices.” 
–MBA President and CEO David Stevens, on HUD’s Single-Family Loan Certification proposal issued yesterday.

“In MBA’s view, because more than 80 percent of complaints do not require action beyond an explanation, posting these unsubstantiated complaint narratives will only mislead the consumers the CFPB is charged with protecting. We therefore urge that complaints be verified before narratives are posted. At the very least, the CFPB should establish procedures to take down complaints not requiring action.”  
–MBA Senior Vice President Public Policy & Industry Relations Steve O’Connor, in a comment letter to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

“This program has attracted considerable attention from foreign nationals, particularly those residing in China, and we’ve seen considerable recent growth in investment volume.” –Arian Mahmoodi, financial analyst with Wells Fargo’s Hospitality Finance Group, on the federal Employment-Based Immigration Fifth Preference EB-5 program, which allows foreign citizens to obtain U.S. green cards by investing $500,000 or more into a project that creates or preserves at least 10 full-time jobs. 

“When we look at where the CFPB has focused–on eClosings and the integrated disclosures and the electronic audit trail being collected–the person sitting in the middle of those transactions is the warehouse lender. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are willing to buy eNotes, but we need others to buy eNotes as well. For those of us who want greater efficiencies and want to move the industry forward, we have to move forward with the eClosing process.”
–Brenda Clem, CMB, eWarehouse director with Street Resource Group Inc., Cincinnati, and co-chair of the MBA RESTECH eWarehouse Workgroup. 

“Indicators are heading in the right direction. Robust homebuyer demand has put total home sales on pace for the best year since 2007 and look for that trend to continue.”
–Freddie Mac Deputy Chief Economist Len Kiefer. 

“Household formation has been depressed in recent years by a long, jobless recovery and by a lull in the growth of the working age population. Improving employment markets will build on major demographic trends-including maturing of Baby Boomers, Hispanics and Millennials-to create strong growth in both owner and rental housing markets over the next decade.”
–MBA Vice President of Research and Economics Lynn Fisher.

“Average company production volume was up in the second quarter, as purchase volume grew and mortgage pipelines from the first quarter’s refinance boomlet closed. The production volume increase resulted in a nominal decrease in per-loan production expenses, which offset a decrease in secondary marketing income.”–MBA Vice President of Industry Analysis Marina Walsh.