While rumors swirl about the topic for the phone call with Stearns Lending’s correspondent-wide staff today (let’s hope its good news), Richard Cordray’s job future, and more retail layoffs (this time Walmart’s cuts), how about something non-lending? Do you have a hankering for music from back home? Really miss that right-wing or left-wing talk show? Here’s a free website that lets you listen
to radio stations from anywhere in the world.
In other radio, non-mortgage, news, Norway has become the first country to eliminate
FM radio. There's even a music-themed
joke today.
The industry is still talking
about the FHA MIP change earlier this week. What else is going on in FHA & VA land with lenders
and investors?
FHA announced that it is
reducing its annual Mortgage Insurance Premium (annual MIP) rates for most
Title II forward mortgages with Closing/Disbursement dates on or after January
27, 2017. These annual MIP rate reductions will expand access to mortgage
credit, and are expected to lower the cost of housing for the approximately 1
million households that use FHA annually. This
FHA Mortgagee Letter provides detailed information about the annual MIP rate
reductions, including a reduction of 25
basis points (bps) in the annual MIP rate for most new FHA-insured mortgages.
The new annual MIP rate for mortgages that fall into this category is 60 bps.
FHA issued Mortgagee
Letter 2016-25: 2017 Nationwide Forward Mortgage
Limits - Correction for Special Exception Areas to provide official notification
of the previously announced correction to the ceiling limits for calendar year
2017 in the special exemption areas of Alaska, Hawaii, Guam, and the Virgin
Islands.
Pacific
Union Financial, LLC announced the release of
the FHA Section 203(h) Mortgage Insurance for Disaster Victims loan program to
the Correspondent channel. Section 203(h) loans are available to victims
whose previous residence (owned or rented) was in a Presidentially-Declared
Major Disaster Area (PDMDA) and the property was destroyed or damaged to such
an extent that replacement is necessary.
FAMC has modified its FHA FICO/DTI
overlay with new policy as follows: FICO < 640: DTI cannot exceed 45%,
regardless of AUS results and FICO > 640: DTI per AUS.
Mortgage
Solutions Financial has made updated to its VA and USDA Streamline guidelines
effective January 1st. Mortgage Solutions Financial will also be implementing the "Auto-Lock" functionality within its pricing engine for all FNMA, FHLMC, FHA, VA, and USDA lock requests. Loans will be locked immediately upon lock request.
Plaza's Wholesale
Lock Policies WH-LP-001 have been updated. The update includes revisions to Section 8 of
the Policy concerning Broker Compensation: increasing the allowable
compensation dollar cap, clarifying discount pricing considerations, and VA
loan considerations. In addition, references to the Mortgage Broker Fee
Agreement and Non-Discrimination disclosure have been removed.
Plaza
Home Mortgage will also align with FHA annual
MIP changes announcing a 25-basis point reduction in the annual MIP rate for
most FHA Title II forward mortgages with closing/disbursement dates on or after
January 27, 2017.
Paramount
Residential Mortgage Group's Resource Center in
FastTrac has been updated with PRMG Appraisal Guidelines and the addition of
the VA 2017 Calculator Tool.
And let's not ignore the continued conventional conforming (Freddie &
Fannie, for the most part) tweaks that lenders and investors are making
to start the new year!
First off, no one at either
agency is ever allowed to talk about the future. But the
WSJ says a Fannie/Freddie reform bill modeled on the Crapo/Johnson
legislation from '14 stands the best chance of passing through Congress. That
bill would wind down Fannie/Freddie, transfer their securitization
infrastructure to a new cooperate owned by the banking industry, and wrap
mortgages w/an explicit gov't guarantee issued by an FDIC-like agency.
Yes, envisioning
a Fannie and Freddie endgame has
turned into a pastime. The
question of what to do with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac has bedeviled investors
and politicians ever since their crisis-era bailout. Donald Trump's election,
and comments by his pick for Treasury secretary, have raised hopes of a
solution.
The
future of Fannie & Freddie under Trump is
up in the air. By
many measures, the housing market is the strongest it's been since the lead-up
to the Great Recession. Home prices have returned to pre-recession levels
nationwide. The foreclosure rate has fallen significantly, and mortgage rates
are still low by historical standards.
Wells
Fargo Funding has removed its overlay
for tax return transcripts on Loans originated by Sellers opting to use Desktop
Underwriter® (DU®) validation service for income and employment.as of January 10th.
In accordance with Fannie Mae's removal of PIW fees for loans delivered to
Fannie Mae on or after January 1, 2017. Wells is making system
enhancements to accommodate the change. However, until system support is
available, Wells Fargo Funding will apply post-fund adjustments to refund the
PIW fee.
U.S.
Bank Home Mortgage is enhancing its
conforming LPMI Fixed Rate and Lender-Paid MI Programs. Qualifying ratios will
be determined by LP or DU, the maximum debt-to-income ratio of 45% has been
eliminated. Funds to close/reserves will be determined by LP or DU, the greater
of either the standard FHLMC required reserves or two months PITI in reserves
has been eliminated.
Fannie
Mae's Lender
Letter states updates regarding the approval of the acquisition by Arch
Capital Group Ltd. of United Guaranty Corporation and its affiliates and
updates to forms. In addition to the guidance related to United Guaranty, the
list of Fannie Mae's Approved
Mortgage Insurance Forms has been updated to include some newly-approved forms for Essent
Guaranty and Radian Guaranty. This
document lists the respective customer service numbers for Arch MI and
United Guaranty.
Wells
Fargo Funding has reinstated Prior
Approval underwriting option on conventional Conforming Loans for Sellers that
have delegated underwriting authority. Effective for Best Effort Registrations,
Locks, relocks, and renegotiations on and after January 5, 2017.
Arch MI and United Guaranty
are now one company. For now, Arch MI's and United Guaranty's systems will
continue to look and operate as they currently do. In December, 2016, United Guaranty announced changes to our Underwriting
Guides in response to changes to conforming loan limits. These changes became
effective January 3, 2017. Underwriting
Requirements Guide and all supporting documents are available on the UG website.
Have you integrated with the
Desktop Underwriter (DU) validation service? Fannie Mae's validation service uses third-party
data vendors to independently validate borrower income, assets, and employment
data, providing our lenders Day 1 Certainty on validated loan components. Visit
the DU
validation service web page to view a list of DU
validation service vendors and other resources.
Fannie
announced M.I. updates. Last week Arch
Capital Group Inc. announced that it completed the acquisition of United
Guaranty Corp. from American International Group Inc. Fannie Mae approved the
acquisition of UGC and affiliates United Guaranty Residential Insurance Co. and
United Guaranty Mortgage Indemnity Co.
Origin
Bank has added eMortgage
warehouse financing to the bank's product offerings. The technology of
eMortgages, mortgages for which documents are created, transferred and stored
electronically rather than by using traditional paper documentation methods.
The bank is partnering
with Fannie Mae, a leading source of financing for mortgage
lenders, and is one of only a handful of companies offering this service. The
digital technology provides benefits such as faster liquidity in the secondary
market, operational efficiencies, quicker warehouse inventory turn times,
increased data quality, and consistency and accuracy in the closing process.
The bank began offering eWarehouse financing for loans sold to Fannie Mae on
January 1, 2017. (For more information contact Ken
Johnson or Kim
Cates.)
Occasionally I am asked about
books on secondary marketing. As those in the trade know, much of the knowledge
is learned on the job. There does exist, however, The
Handbook of Mortgage-Backed Securities,
the first revision following the subprime mortgage crisis. Check it out. "It is
designed to provide not only the fundamentals of these securities and the
investment characteristics that make them attractive to a broad range of
investors, but also extensive coverage on the state-of-the-art strategies for
capitalizing on the opportunities in this market. The book is intended for both
the individual investor and the professional manager. The volume includes
contributions from a wide range of experts most of whom have been actively
involved in the evolution of the mortgage-backed securities market."
Yes, in some way the MIP
change earlier this week influenced MBS pricing - especially the spreads
between Ginnie & Fannie securities. Don't cross-hedge! And something else
that impacts the price of mortgage-backed securities are prepayment speeds. How long will
those loans backing those pools be around, or are they all paying off? What investor wants to pay 105 for
something that returns 100 in four months? The December prepayment prints posted
on Friday evening and both conventional and Ginnie Mae prepayment speeds
declined. The slowdown in Ginnie Mae speeds was more significant that Fannie
& Freddie. With the backup in rates, as well as the slowdown due to the
winter season, analysts are expecting a slowdown in prepayments into the Spring.
In terms of rates yesterday,
Tuesday fixed-income securities like agency MBS or U.S. Treasuries barely
budged and decided to focus on declining oil prices despite a steady equity
market and a surge in positive sentiment at small U.S. businesses. WTI (West
Texas Intermediate) crude fell 2.14% to $50.85/bbl., a multi-week low. We even
had a decent $24 billion 3-year note Treasury auction. The 10-year note spent
most of the session in a 6-tick range with the yield closing little changed
across the curve.
Today the only scheduled news
is the non-market-moving MBA application index for last week. Are consumers
adjusting to higher rates? Probably: apps were up almost 6% last week with both
purchases and refis showing nice pickups. We also have a $20 billion 10-year
T-note auction, but garnering more press will be Donald Trump's first news
conference since July, slated for 11AM ET today. For numbers today we find the 10-year note yielding
2.38% after closing last night at 2.38%. And current coupon Agency MBS prices
are nearly unchanged.
Jobs and Announcements
In hiring news, "AmeriHome Mortgage continues its expansion in 2017! The Correspondent Lending business will be hosting the first of several Open House Job Fair events on January 26th in our Dallas office. Management is actively recruiting for experienced mortgage operations professionals, including underwriters and operations supervisors, as well as entry level customer service representatives. For immediate consideration, go to the AmeriHome Mortgage Careers Page or send your resume to jobs@amerihome.com. AmeriHome is also excited to announce that they are now offering a new Assignment of Trade (AOT) commitment option. This allows sellers to trade unspecified pools of loans, transfer hedge positions prior to hedge expiration, avoid bid/ask spread when listing hedges, and deliver up to 10% high balance into trades with no hit. Contact your AmeriHome Correspondent Sales Rep to find out more."
And, "With a steady growth rate of 28% in 2016, Envoy Correspondent has a plan in place to build upon their success by hiring both open Regional Account Managers (RAM) positions that available for the TX/OK and CA/NV regions. Each region has a small number of established/producing lenders, so maximizing those relationships and successfully developing each region is essential. Correspondent delegated and non-delegated experience is preferred. Qualified candidates should email their resume to Jeff Haar - Western Division Manager."
On the retail side, "MB Financial Bank's (MB) dedication to Community Lending begins with our employees and their commitment to expanding the availability of credit in all the communities we serve. MB's new Community Home Advantage Program (CHAP) provides certain consumers with a significantly improved price - assisting with closing costs or in the form of a lower interest rate on loan transactions secured by properties located within specific markets. MB has openings for Community Lending Loan Officers in Georgia (Atlanta), Pennsylvania (Philadelphia), California (Los Angeles, Anaheim, Irvine, San Diego), Missouri (St. Louis), Michigan (Detroit), Illinois (Chicago), and New York (Buffalo). Contact Mark Powell (734-548-6126) regarding LO opportunities. MB also has openings for Community Lending TPO Account Executives in Georgia (Atlanta), Illinois (Chicago), and New York (southern). Contact Mark Mazzenga (610-496-1277) regarding TPO opportunities. Bilingual candidates are encouraged to apply to join our nationally-ranked team of mortgage professionals. EEO/AA Employer. Equal Housing Lender. Member FDIC. NMLS#401467.
"Assurance Financial has a solid reputation for closing loans on time. It's what we do. Our back office supports its mortgage loan originators and branch managers so they can focus on originating more new loans rather than worrying about closing their pipeline. Assurance is expanding its footprint, selectively hiring branch managers and MLOs in good markets. For more information, contact Paul Peters, CMB at 225-239-7948 or visit www.LendTheWay.com/Careers."
In product news, MortgageLead.com recently launched its warm transfer program for both purchase and refinance warm transfers. The most popular program right now is the VA-eligible warm transfer lenders interested in helping Veterans get into VA loans. Many of you will notice that MortgageLead.com is powered Suited Connector - already one of the leading players in the mortgage lead space.