For as long as we can remember, everyone involved in home building, selling, and financing have strongly supported the home mortgage interest tax deduction. People financing their home could reduce their federal income tax by a large amount, if not all, of the interest they paid on their mortgage loan during the year. This is considered a good thing for…
CFPB, Let My People Go
As independent non-bank lenders take the lead away from traditional banks in originating new mortgage business, they also want to be excluded from direct CFPB supervision. They are not the only ones. Small to mid-size non-bank mortgage lenders, like some community banks and credit unions with assets under $10 billion, are seeking exclusion from CFPB audits and enforcement actions. A…
Are You Safe From an FCA Action?
Ask lenders – and just about all will tell you they do their business the right way. If so, they shouldn’t need to worry about any action from the Department of Justice (DOJ) under the False Claims Act (FCA). Right? With everyone supposedly doing business the right way, why does the DOJ keep finding lenders that violate the rules? Could…
And It’s Non-Bank Lenders By a Nose
It’s official (as if we didn’t know), according to the 2016 HMDA data, non-bank lenders made more mortgage loans than their bank counterparts. For the first time since way back in 1995, the non-depository lending institutions closed more purchase and refinance mortgage loans. You’ve come a long way, baby. Some interesting facts realized from the 2016 HMDA information are: 53%…
IRS To Validate Income and Identity?
What do Equifax and the IRS have in common? They both house tons of consumer personal data. Equifax got hacked. Could the same happen to the IRS? Some regulators are saying no and pushing for the IRS to get more heavily involved in the data verification game. Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC) introduced legislation aimed at fast-tracking the IRS’s capability to…
Millennials Top the List of Current Homebuyers
We knew it would happen sooner or later and so it has. The Millennial generation, the single largest group of current consumers, is finally looking to buy a home. In fact, in the past 12 months, Millennials have topped the list of home buyers. It’s time for this generation to make its mark on the housing industry and take its…