Demographics will tell you that it makes more sense organizing populations by how they live – rather than where they live – is a much more precise way to talk about the world. People are human so we all tend to gravitate to those with similar interests and personalities. Every lender knows that people need a place to live, and it’s nice to build equity, have stability, and pound a nail into a wall without having to tell the landlord. The Census Bureau tells us that the homeownership rate rose from the prior year for the fifth consecutive quarter in 2018. It held steady at 64.2%, unchanged from the prior quarter and its highest level since 2014. The share of Americans who own a home rose from the prior year, from 63.6% in the first quarter of 2017. Nice when ownership increase when people deserve it, rather than a goal unto itself forced on lenders by the government.

Lender Products and Training

National MI announces that it has granted 12-month rescission relief on 100,000 loans as of the first quarter 2018. National MI SafeGuard® provides rescission relief for eligible loans after 12 months of timely payments made by the borrower, which is two years sooner than the industry standard of 36 months. “Reaching the 100,000-loan mark is a significant milestone for National MI,” says Claudia Merkle, COO, National MI. “It shows our customers have embraced this process and value our differentiated offering.” The majority of the 100,000 loans receiving rescission relief were insured through National MI’s delegated underwriting channel. Delegated loans that have achieved rescission relief were underwritten by approved delegated lenders and successfully passed through National MI’s upfront assurance review process, which provided the lenders with underwriting protection starting from the first day and rescission relief after the Borrowers made their first 12 monthly payments. For more information, contact your National MI Sales Advisor.

In today’s marketplace, loan originators need a simpler way to access the Non-Agency market to expand loan volume and service more complex customers. LoanNEX is the answer. The LoanNEX non-agency marketplace gives originators a streamlined way to find solutions for a broader base of borrowers, with discovery, pricing and execution tools all in one place.  The platform is designed specifically to serve the expanded credit market. Replace your manual processes with online tools to discover and accurately price your expanded credit loans. LoanNEX is the only platform of its kind that enables collaboration and transacting between buyers and sellers to clarify and simply the process for all sides. LoanNEX is serving over 100 sellers and have priced over $750 million of loans on the platform so far this year.  LoanNEX is growing quickly, for more info contact Eloise Schmitz or click here to request a demo.

Insellerate is hosting a webinar: “Mortgage Sales & Marketing Boot Camp: 6 Quota-Crushing Tips for Loan Officers” on Friday, May 4, from 10-10:45am PT. “Whether you’re a current quota-crusher or aspiring to be one, this webinar is for you! Learn new hacks to get the most out of your day from industry experts Dale Vermillion (President/CEO, Dale Vermillion) and Josh Friend (CEO/Founder, Insellerate). They will cover immediate action items and long-term strategy that you can leverage to close more loans and generate repeat business. Learn what you can do today to make an impact on your pipeline, how to scale your sales, and how to gain an edge through your approach.”


FHA, VA, and Ginnie News

The next person to run the VA is certainly in the headlines, but what about the FHA? There is no head of the FHA. The person voted by his class as “Most Likely to Lead the FHA” is Brian Montgomery, who has the support of the Mortgage Bankers Association, Donald Trump, affordable housing advocates, and Wall Street trade groups. He cleared the Senate Banking Committee in November, but with the end of 2017 things were reset.

Thousands of bills are introduced every year that go nowhere – but one never knows, right? Maxine Waters introduced legislation to increase scrutiny of FHA servicers, improve compliance with loss mitigation actions to prevent foreclosures, and establish a process for borrowers to register complaints and make appeals if they believe they are being treated unfairly. Do FHA servicers need more costs? Government MSRs already trade far back of Fannie & Freddie mortgage servicing rights. (“The FHA Foreclosure Prevention Act of 2018,” or H.R. 5555.)

Nations Lending Corp., restricted by HUD nearly a month ago from putting their loans into multi-lender pools for Ginnie Mae issues, has been allowed back into the program. Nations worked with HUD and its prepayment speeds dropped.

FHA published a notice in the Federal Register (Docket No. FR-6097-N-01) of all completed administrative actions taken by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Mortgagee Review Board during the period from October 1, 2016, through September 30, 2017. The notice provides a description of, and the cause for, the Mortgagee Review Board’s administrative actions against HUD-approved mortgagees in 20 fact-based cases and 75 annual recertification violations.

Ginnie Mae has added "Enhanced Disclosure Bulletins Page.” And Ginnie Mae has added a bulletin: "Repeated Bulk Disclosure Download Threshold Change." But there’s more! A recent Ginnie Mae bulletin added "Addition of Multifamily Termination Pools to Disclosure Pool/CUSIP Search,” posted a bulletin regarding Disclosure Data File Downloading and website IP Addresses, posted a notification of upcoming changes to its website menu organization to better group Disclosure-related pages and improve user experience.

Pacific Union Financial posted that Borrower’s actively participating in a Chapter 13 Bankruptcy repayment plan should utilize the new FHA Specialty Plus product codes, eligible for 30-year terms only.  Specialty Plus pricing is not applicable to FHA Streamline and Simple Refinance transactions.

Sun West is providing clarification on payment history requirements for FHA Cash Out refinances for borrowers who are in forbearance agreement with their lender due to a Major Disaster per HUD Handbook 4000.1. To ensure the above requirement from HUD handbook 4000.1 is met, Sun West requires the mortgage to be current at the time of closing. The deferred mortgage interest cannot be financed into the loan and must be paid prior to or at closing with the borrower’s own funds. For additional questions not answered by the guideline, please email Sun West's underwriting scenario desk for more information.


Capital Markets

Yes, the overall trend in rates is higher, but rates dipped slightly Friday, as the advance reading of Q1 GDP (actual 2.3%; expected 2.1%), showed that personal consumption expenditures (+1.1%) increased at the slowest rate since the Q2 2013, and well below the 4.0% reading in the last quarter of last year, with the entirety of that increase driven by services spending. The 2.3% figure was a deceleration from the Q4 growth rate of 2.9% and the GDP Price Deflator was up 2.0%, missing expectations after increasing 2.3% in Q4. Real final sales, which exclude the change in inventories and are often viewed as the better gauge of growth, were up only 1.9% versus the prior ten quarter average of 2.2%.

The first quarter employment cost index showed that the good news is wages and salaries, and benefits, are trending higher. That will support the burgeoning inflation narrative and it will keep the Federal Reserve inclined to stay on its rate-hike path.

The final April reading for the University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment checked in at 98.8, above expectations and up from the preliminary reading of 97.8. These consumer sentiment numbers support the view that the economy is "as good as it gets." This is alongside the budding concern for the stock market that earnings are at, or near, a peak for this growth cycle.

Friday also saw Thomas M. Hoenig announce that he is stepping down (it is the end of his term) as the Vice Chairman and a Member of the Board of Directors of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) on April 30.

This week's economic calendar includes updates on spending and income, vehicle sales, ISM surveys, construction spending, trade, productivity and employment including Friday's payrolls report. The Treasury will announce the latest quarterly Refunding (to be conducted next week) on Wednesday (following today's quarterly borrowing estimate at 3:00pm), which also includes the latest FOMC decision with the RBA and Norges Bank also due with decisions this week. Additionally, it is also Golden Week in Japan with the market officially closed for a couple days.

As we begin the week, we’ve seen March Personal Income (+0.3%), Personal Spending (+0.4%), PCE Prices and PCE Prices - Core (+0.2%). Chicago PMI for April, at 9:45am, is forecasted to decline 0.9 to 56.5, while the March Pending Home Sales Index is seen rising 0.5% MoM following on the 3.1% increase in February at 10:00am. Rates are little changed versus Friday’s close with agency MBS prices almost unchanged and the 10-year yielding 2.96%.


Jobs

JVM Lending, a fast-growing and unique Northern California mortgage banking operation, is looking for a Banking Operations Manager. We are different. We have no loan officers. We instead have extraordinarily stringent hiring standards, an advanced internal training and licensing program, and a sophisticated marketing and business development operation that enables us to cultivate volume in all markets. We are also renowned for our speed and detailed systems and processes, and our attention to culture is unmatched in the industry. We are looking for an Ops Manager with extensive knowledge in ALL aspects of mortgage banking; someone who is willing to get their hands dirty, who is excited about helping us significantly grow our unique model, and who can help us create highly polished systems, policies, procedures and training modules for our mortgage banking operations.” Please contact Tiffany Nordgren with questions or to send a confidential resume.

Paramount Residential Mortgage Group, Inc. (PRMG) proudly announces the hiring of Alex Del Haro, Divisional Vice President of Wholesale.  Alex is a thirty-year trusted industry veteran with an unyielding passion for training and coaching sales professionals.  In this new role, he will be overseeing sales and operations of all production channels in the Santa Ana, CA Fulfillment Center. With the addition of Alex Del Haro as one of the Wholesale Divisional Vice President’s, PRMG is confident that their Wholesale Division will be able to better serve their new and existing brokers through their brand new TPO Concierge white glove service, enhanced TPO technologies and product portfolio expansion. If you’re ready to join a top-tier team and company, then it’s time to talk! Become part of a Winning Team! Click here to learn more or contact Alex Del Haro, Divisional Vice President for more information.

Arch MI is searching for an Enterprise Risk Manager to join the Enterprise Risk Management department in supporting all business units in identifying, measuring, monitoring, controlling and continuously reporting on the risks to which Arch MI is or could potentially be exposed. The Enterprise Risk Management Manager develops and coordinates enterprise risk program materials including statements, governance documents, and policies to support the goals and initiatives of Arch MI. He/she provides expertise and guidance to the development and maintenance of enterprise risk documents and the metrics displayed in the quarterly dashboard and will focus primarily on finance and accounting aspects of the Enterprise Risk Management program. The ideal candidate will have a bachelor's degree in Accounting, Finance, Economics or related field (advanced degree or MBA preferred) and 3-5 years of overall experience in banking, insurance, financial services industry. Confidential resumes or questions should be addressed to Sr. Recruiter Tonya Battle.

Center Street Lending is looking for highly-motivated mortgage origination professionals who not only drive growth, but also deepen customer relationships. Successful candidates will have a track record of high volume monthly originations while delivering excellent customer service and practice a consultative sales approach. Must have the ability to make outbound prospecting phone calls to potential customers including brokers and borrowers. Prior experience in single-family or multi-family investment lending is required. The position is based in their headquarters in Irvine, California however other locations may be considered for the right candidate. Center Street Lending has built a reputation as a premier private money, portfolio lender focused on residential real estate entrepreneurs. Established in 2010, Center Street Lending has consistently and profitably grown year over year, with volume doubling in 2017. Loan products include: fix and flip, fix and rent, buy and rent; buy, tear down and build; new construction, and bridge loans. Contact Center Street Lending at elis@centerstreetlending.com if you are interested in joining their growing national sales team.