MBA Newslinks Archive

“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.