Category: News and Trends

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau released a report yesterday saying more than one in four consumers with a credit report have at least one debt in collection by third-party debt collectors.

Fitch Ratings, New York, said U.S. life insurers’ exposure to mortgages increased to nearly 13 percent of invested assets at year-end 2018, up from 12.4 percent a year ago.

The House Financial Services Committee last week began a markup session on a number of housing finance-related bills. Ahead of the first votes, the Mortgage Bankers Association sent a letter to Committee leadership offering views of several bills of interest to MBA membership.

Two reports from Fitch Ratings, New York, offer positive news on the status of U.S. residential mortgage-backed securities.

ACES Risk Management, Pompano Beach, Fla., released its Mortgage QC Trends Report, showing the overall critical defect rate increased on a quarterly and yearly basis.

The good news is, households including at least one person with a high school diploma or GED can afford the typical mortgage payment in most large metro areas across the U.S., said Zillow Inc., Seattle. But soaring home values that have outpaced incomes have made down payments a barrier for many, particularly first-time home buyers.

The House approved two bills yesterday, strongly supported by the Mortgage Bankers Association, which clarify when Department of Veterans Affairs home loans qualify to be pooled into Ginnie Mae securities, as well as legislation that would increase access to housing counseling for consumers.

Auction.com, Irvine, Calif., said although most respondents to a recent survey expect only “slight” changes in foreclosures and bank-owned inflow in the second half of 2019, nearly half cited the Western U.S. as the highest risk of increase in distressed inventory.

CoreLogic, Irvine, Calif., said April mortgage delinquencies and foreclosure inventories fell to their lowest rates in more than 20 years.

The commercial mortgage-backed securities delinquency rate saw a rare increase in June, but that figure comes with a “footnote,” reported Trepp, New York.