“It’s amazing, we can’t do HMDA right,” so said my good friend and colleague Jack Konyk, Executive Director of Government affairs with Weiner Brodsky Kider, during an exchange at a recent industry forum. Jack was talking about the requirements for reporting a borrower’s ethnicity, race, and sex for loan applications. HMDA has been around since the 70’s, like Jack, and…
Author: Michael Vitali
They’re Here. Millennial Buyers Are Here!
The much anticipated, and long awaited, entrance of Millennials into the home buying market seems to finally be upon us. This generation accounted for about 85% of the volume of home purchase, closed mortgages in January. Not surprisingly, many of these buyers chose low down payment mortgage programs for their financing. In fact, Down Payment Resource, an entity that creates…
And So It Begins!
Are You Ready to HMDA? “Those required to report this information must make more careful efforts to follow the law,” CFPB Director Richard Cordray said in a press release. “Today we are sending a strong reminder that HMDA serves important purposes for many stakeholders in the mortgage market.” Mr. Cordray was speaking about a $1.75 million fine levied against…
Can You Compete in the New Mortgage Market?
Times they are a changing…rates are on the rise, refi’s are going away, house prices are increasing, and buyers are a little different and getting tougher to qualify. To compete in the new mortgage market, lenders need both a full complement of products and services and current technology, with the qualified staff, to make it all work. Everybody is concerned…
Will New Housing Starts Impact Home Prices?
According to Lynn Fisher, MBA’s Vice President of Research and Economics, new housing starts should increase about 10% in 2017 and just a bit less in 2018. The effect should be to slow the rising prices for existing housing, helping more consumers realize their American Dream. The MBA forecasts that mortgage debt in the US will increase in 2018 to…
Woo-Woo Consumers Are Upbeat on Housing!
Despite rising mortgage rates and increasing home prices, many consumers are feeling good about housing going into the spring buying season. As evidence, Fannie Mae’s monthly index of homebuyer sentiment rose to its highest level since 2011. That’s great news. Woo-Woo! According to Doug Duncan, Chief Economist at Fannie Mae, Millennials showed strong increases in job confidence and income growth.…