MBA Newslinks Archive

“Mortgage rates increased at least partially as a result of the Federal Reserve’s rate hike and move to a slightly more hawkish stance. Borrowers may have gotten applications into their lender in advance of the FOMC announcement, as most observers anticipated an increase in the Fed’s rate target at the December meeting.”–MBA Chief Economist Mike Fratantoni.

“Cybersecurity regulations issued by only one state this year, will surely lead to additional and potentially divergent cybersecurity regulations issued in a few more states early next year. That pattern will continue and it will create a patchwork of state requirements. Our elected officials should encourage efforts to converge and coordinate with existing cybersecurity requirements. Please help us to balance important consumer protections with this reality. Unilateral action will ultimately lead to multiple standards which have the potential to conflict with each other and produce expensive and divergent results.”–James Bopp, National Correspondent Sales Manager with Platinum Home Mortgage Corp., in testimony yesterday before a New York Assembly Committee on proposed cybersecurity regulations.

“While starts dropped in November, “they continue to provide an important release valve for solid demand in the housing market, but still have much more room for growth.”–Ralph McLaughlin, chief economist with Trulia, San Francisco.

“Strong household formation coupled with further job growth, rising wages and continuing home price appreciation will drive growth in purchase originations in the coming years.”–From the latest MBA Housing and Economic forecast.

“MBA commends the GSEs and FHFA for the thoughtful development process that integrated stakeholder input–such as MBA’s One Mod proposal–to create a modification program that builds on the lessons learned from HAMP. We hope that other government insurers and guarantors use ‘Flex Modification’ as a starting point as they think about their own loss mitigation procedures so that HAMP is eventually replaced by a streamlined, universal loan mod product.”–MBA Senior Vice President of Residential Policy and Member Engagement Pete Mills.

“At this point, the market has already priced in the short term rate increase which is expected from the Federal Open Market Committee today.”–MBA Vice President of Research and Economics Lynn Fisher.

“Mortgage applications for new homes continued to grow on a year over year basis in November, driven by continued improvement in the overall economy and job growth. Despite the fact that overall home prices have increased at a greater than 5 percent annualized rate, the growth in average loan size for new homes has slowed.”–MBA Vice President of Research and Economics Lynn Fisher.

“If [community and regional banks] continue to be the volume leader in taking out maturing commercial mortgage-backed securities loans, we’ll continue to see high success rates on maturing loans. But some evidence is mounting that regulatory pressures on these bank lenders is starting to bite.”–Brian Olasov, Executive Director of Financial Services Consulting with Carlton Fields, New York.

“In examinations, management will need to demonstrate not only their controls and systems, but also the steps that they have taken to cultivate a compliance culture in their organization from the CEO to the LO.”–John Vong, CMB, CMT, president and c0-founder of ComplianceEase, Burlingame, Calif.

“An increase in production volume and slight decrease in expenses in the third quarter kept production profits relatively stable. These profits would have been even higher were it not for a decline in net secondary marketing income, primarily income related to mortgage servicing rights.”–MBA Vice President of Industry Analysis Marina Walsh.