MLO Jobs; Loan Products; Purchase, CU, Servicing, Warehouse Tools; FHA and USDA Moves; Rates Treading Water
Although most states don’t “fall back” and change the clocks until November 7th, losing 3-4 minutes of daylight a day is now readily apparent, and it’s that time of year again when Thriller” starts appearing on radio playlists. Which reminds me, you know you’re old when you clean your house to the music you used to party to. In the music vein, I took the cities (yes, I realize that big cities have various neighborhoods) mentioned in the Grateful Dead’s “Truckin’” to see what $400,000 could buy in Dallas, Houston, Buffalo, and New Orleans… “Arrows of neon and flashing marquees out on Main Street in Chicago, New York, Detroit, and it's all on the same street. Your typical city involved in a typical daydream, hang it up and see what tomorrow brings.” While we’re roaming around the nation, when the Federal Government's eviction ban was shot down by SCOTUS, remember that several states still have eviction moratoriums in place, including California, New Jersey, and DC. And remember that the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) announced Monday the extension and addition of new COVID-19 mortgage relief options for homeowners with FHA home loans. (Today’s audio version of the commentary is available here and this week’s is sponsored by Richey May, a recognized leader in providing specialized advisory, audit, tax, technology, and other services in the mortgage industry and in banking.)
TPO Loan Products
Lakeview is on a mission to develop products that streamline the mortgage process. That’s why they designed Jumbo AUS. This is an AUS underwritten Jumbo product which also conducts appraisal reviews through Collateral Underwriter®, creating a quick and seamless loan transaction process for you and your borrowers. In addition, Jumbo AUS offers higher loan amounts and increased maximum LTVs so that your clients can go big and go home. Don’t miss out on this great product offering. Schedule a meeting with Lakeview at the MBA Annual Conference to learn more.
“Check out our Colorful Government Purchase Incentives! The Freedom Mortgage Wholesale Division is offering a (.250) LLPA Purchase Incentive and 2 business day Priority Purchase Underwriting for all VA and FHA purchases. Additionally, the previous 3.50 LLPA for VA Cash-Out transactions has been reduced to 2.00 (a 1.50 improvement!) To learn more, check out our rate sheet or email AskFreedom@FreedomWholesale.com to have an Account Executive contact you. *Subject to credit approval, requires full entitlement; for purchases and cash-out refinances only and not applicable for loan amounts<= $144,000. For IRRRLs, VA will continue to guaranty 25% of the loan amount without regard to the Veteran’s available entitlement and/or county loan limits.”
Lender and Broker Products and Services
With more than $47 billion in assets, Wintrust offers customized line commitments to fit your business’ needs. Its roots began as a community bank, so Wintrust’s staff are experts at developing relationships and applying a personal touch to decision-making. Plus, the proprietary platform requires less documentation, resulting in unparalleled speed of funding so clients benefit from a simple process that enables certainty of fast funding always, and especially at month-end when you are most resource constrained. Wintrust has been partnering with Midwest Mortgage Bankers for 25 years, and is excited to begin offering warehouse facilities nationwide. To learn more about Wintrust’s respective business models, please reach out to Kevin Mitzit or Cindy Zuckerman. Member FDIC. Equal Housing Lender.
The next wave of servicing regulation is coming: Are you ready? With forbearance and foreclosure moratoriums coming to an end, complying with various federal and state servicing regulations and loss mitigation is a growing topic of concern amongst mortgage lenders. With recent and still to come changes, servicers find themselves gearing up for new compliance regulations. In this 60-minute webinar, industry experts discuss recent and upcoming servicing compliance regulations/strategies that leading experts are implementing to prepare for servicing regulatory audits. Industry Expert Speakers Include: Amanda Phillips, EVP of Compliance, ACES Quality Management, Reid Herlihy, A Partner in the Mortgage Banking Group, Ballard Spahr, and Samantha Gramsas, SVP of Servicing Operations, Rushmore Loan Management Services. Watch the recording.
From Service 1st’s CRO, Jeff Gentry, “Rob, a big thank you for highlighting S1 in your September 18th newsletter, where service is first for credit and verification solutions. To discover even more, we invite your readers with FREE* exhibit hall passes to join us Oct 5-6 for a “backyard bash” at the Regional Conference of MBAs in Atlantic City, just minutes away from our newly purchased east coast operations center in Hammonton, NJ! We’ll share with you some third-party loan manufacturing tools that empower greater value for mortgage originators. Or schedule with one of our lead experts at the MBA Annual in San Diego, Oct 17-20, to see how we can help support your business goals and initiatives. Learn how we work in synergy with loan operations teams to streamline workflow, compliance, and reporting – resulting in superior customer service and 35-50% faster turn times than industry benchmark.”
How to win the 2022 “purchase war!” Purchase loans will be 75% of the market next year, and there are only 4.79m purchase loans to go around. To win, you must convert more pre-approved buyers and not lose them to home search portals that refer them away. ComeHome.com by HouseCanary, a national real estate brokerage, makes your firm (and your sales force) the most modern home search & homebuyer engagement player in the game. Here’s How! How Wall Street got so good at buying homes! This “smart money” knows home demand is shifting as list prices have plateaued despite sustained short supply. They no longer waste weeks manually managing BPOs, instead using technology to run instant valuation models with granular data on 108m homes & 88m rentals in 19,000 zip codes. Test drive HouseCanary’s Property Explorer FREE, & run your playbook like 7 of the 10 biggest Wall Street players and contact sales@housecanary.com.
FHA and USDA News
Of FHA’s roughly 7.5 million loans outstanding in June, 13.4% were delinquent and 9.0% were seriously delinquent as reported in FHA’s Neighborhood Watch (includes loans in forbearance). AEI put together a spreadsheet, also showing regional appreciation, showing FHA delinquency and the FHA share for the largest 169 MSAs here. “Given the options for the deferral of forborne payments, expanded modifications, and the rapid level of home price appreciation, many of the remaining delinquent owners should be able to avoid foreclosure by exercising one of these options or by selling their properties and paying off the mortgage and covering sale expenses. Delinquencies may also resolve themselves over time through new opportunities afforded by an improving economy.”
Minorities using the FHA program has increased, and now 45% of FHA purchasers who reported race on applications are minorities. FHA’s credit quality is much better than early 2000s, and credit score metrics have improved although most are firmly in the 600 range. The Portfolio has virtually no seller-funded down payment assistance programs. FHA’s Capital Reserves are now $87 billion, more than the unpaid principal balance (UPB) of all FHA loans in forbearance ($83 billion estimate). Rumors are starting to circulate about significant premium reduction.
While analysts wait for the FY 2021 Actuarial Review, and confirmation of the Commissioner, yesterday the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) published Mortgagee Letter (ML) 2021-25, Federal Housing Administration’s Financial Requirements for Mortgagee Eligibility - Update to Unacceptable Assets. This ML addresses the June 25, 2021 changes to Chapter 7 of the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) General Audit Guidance (OIG Audit Guide) Handbook 2000.04. These changes impact FHA-approved mortgagees and entities applying for FHA approval.
FHA posted the draft Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) Origination through Servicing sections of its Single Family Housing Policy Handbook 4000.1 (Handbook 4000.1) for stakeholder review and feedback. The draft sections contain FHA’s proposed comprehensive consolidation of HECM requirements, incorporating approximately 150 Mortgagee Letters and other policy documents that are currently used by mortgagees when originating or servicing HECMs. The draft sections posted today on the Single Family Housing Drafting Table
(Drafting Table) are available for industry feedback through Monday, November 15, 2021.
The draft sections do not contain policies for HECM non-assignment claims; however, those non-assignment claim sections will be posted for feedback at a future date.
PennyMac will continue to purchase USDA Rural Housing loans with Conditional Commitments subject to the availability of commitment authority. View PennyMac Announcement 21-77 for details.
Various PennyMac Product Profiles contain Ginnie Mae seasoning requirements, Read PennyMac’s reminder message in Announcement 21-76.
PRMG Product Update 21-50 provides clarifications on numerous products including condos with an appraisal waiver on Agency Products, acceptance of appraisal waivers on Delayed Financing for Agency Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Agency Texas Home Equity POA’s, FHA Single Unit Approval (SUA) reviews on condos, USDA funding temporary unavailability, and Jumbo products unacceptable third-party reports for documenting assets.
USDA will continue to issue conditional commitments “subject to the availability of commitment authority” during its funding lapse of approximately 2 weeks. FCM will continue to allow loan production on USDA Purchase and Refinance Transactions during this time, view FCM Wholesale Announcement 2021-27 for more information.
USDA announced that funding will not be available for a short period of time. However, USDA Mortgage Loan transactions with a Conditional Commitment which reflects as “subject to the availability of commitment authority” will remain eligible for purchase by AmeriHome.
Capital Markets
Fannie’s trading desk let clients know that “In response to current market conditions, on October 12 a new 30-Year Fixed Rate - 250k Max Loan Amount committing grid will be available in Pricing & Execution-Whole Loan®. Using the committing grids helps incorporate more precise pricing into rate sheets and best execution analysis. For more information, view the Browse Prices Export File Specification document.”
Economists are scaling back their growth forecasts for the third quarter, based on the dampening effect of the coronavirus Delta variant. At the same time they are raising their projections for the fourth quarter and early 2022 when they expect the impacts of the virus and supply-chain disruption will diminish. Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia President Patrick Harker said he supports slowing the pace of central bank asset buying soon but sees no urgency to raise the central bank’s short-term rate target.
The kids these days use words like “cringe” and “based,” so, in an effort to be cool, let me say that the recent volatility that has crept into financial markets based on several unsavory factors from around the globe has mortgage bankers like, totally cringing. We saw more selling in the bond market yesterday following the release of a small upward revision to Q2 GDP and an unexpected increase in weekly jobless claims (even with job openings at a record high). Congress averted a government shutdown, but a U.S. default is still a risk that traders are pricing in.
This week’s Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey saw fixed rates surge 13 bps versus the prior week with the 30-year rate back over 3 percent for the first time since June. The 15-year and 5/1 hybrid ARM rates rose as well. Black Knight’s McDash Flash daily loan-level forbearance data showed another not-quite-the-end-of-the-month week of little movement. The number of active forbearance plans fell another 11k, with larger declines likely on tap for the coming weeks. As a reminder, the largest declines typically come during the first week of the month as expiring plans are deactivated in servicing systems of records.
Today’s calendar includes some important data points, starting with August personal income and spending (+.2 and +.8 percent respectively). The core PCE Price Index (+.4 percent, +4.3 percent for the year, so inflation is rising). Later this morning brings final September Markit manufacturing PMI, August construction spending, and Michigan consumer sentiment. Two Fed presidents are currently scheduled to speak starting with Philadelphia’s Harker followed by Cleveland’s Mester. We begin the day with Agency MBS prices and the 10-year yielding 1.50 after closing yesterday at 1.53 percent as we kick off Q4, DC deals with party maneuvers, and inflation is noticeable.
Employment and Promotions
“The Community Mortgage Team at AnnieMac Home Mortgage is highly focused on helping our Referral Partners grow their production and teams. With our own Video and Social Media professionals, our AnnieMac Worx Realtor Platform and dynamic leadership, Loan Originators are doubling if not tripling their production by helping their partners do the same. The Community Mortgage Team has increased Purchase business by over 240% in the past 18 months by helping our referral partners brand themselves and create consistent organic leads! This team is looking for the best of the best and now interviewing Top Loan Originators looking to grow their brand Nationally. Contact Michael Mandio (845-641-0541) to learn more. P.S., if you are a Realtor looking to grow your business, please contact Michael directly.”
Congratulations to Texas-based Mortgage Financial Services for making the INC5000 List of Fastest Growing Private Companies for the 6th year in a row. EVP of Wholesale Lending & NDC, John H. P. Hudson is committed to making it 7 years is row as MFS is now operating in, and looking for statewide Account Executives for, Colorado and Illinois. If you are in wholesale/NDC, reach out to learn more about the MFS team, its core values, how MFS serves the independent mortgage broker, and how the company has grown so fast. There are amazing opportunities for personal growth at Mortgage Financial Services. John can be reached confidentially at 817-247-4766 or through email.
On Q Financial, Inc., a five-star mortgage lending solutions provider, has recently appointed Jeff Anderson as VP of Retail Operations. Anderson will lead Retail Fulfillment in delivering an exceptional lending experience for both the borrower and the loan originator. As the former FVP Mortgage Fulfillment at PennyMac Loan Services, Anderson is a major win for On Q as they continue to add to their growing list of proven industry experts within their leadership team. “Jeff is already a notable influence in the industry. His leadership and ability to create a culture of collaboration is commendable and is exactly what we need to take our LO and borrower experience to the next level,” said Juan Rodas, EVP of On Q Financial. To learn more about On Q Financial’s career opportunities for originators, please click here.