Today, federally required Mortgage disclosures make lenders look like they're trying to hide fees. Fixing this is the CFPB's first big test.
Good Faith Estimate
When you apply for a mortgage, you get Good Faith Estimate (GFE) and Truth In Lending (TIL) disclosures which show you fees and rates respectively. They’re both a joke because the GFE doesn’t show line item-specific fees and the TIL doesn’t show your actual Note rate. In May the CFPB set out to fix this
In May, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau posted new Good Faith Estimates for public and industry feedback. Today they posted the second draft of the new consumer mortgage disclosures after receiving more than 13,000 comments. These are what consumers will be given by lenders to explain loan terms and quote rates, so consumers and industry
So much effort has gone into discrediting and dismantling the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, you start to believe it after awhile. But as a mortgage insider, I have to say their first big splash looks ok. Today, they posted proposed disclosure forms for mortgage consumers and pros to comment on. They’re a big improvement
Fed Board of Governors member Elizabeth Duke gave a speech today at the Consumer Banker’s Association annual conference in Hollywood, and like a lot of other content emerging from that region, her comments about mortgage lending were “based on true events” but far from reality. Here’s the full speech, and below is an excerpt about
This picture on ‘How To Complete The New Good Faith Estimate’ was making the email rounds this week. Laugh-out-loud funny for most mortgage professionals, but also any borrowers who’ve seen this new form effective January 1, 2010 will see the humor.
What Economic Stats Are Doing To Rates Are we heading for lower rates, or higher rates? Certainly there is no inflationary pressure, although GDP for the fourth quarter (generally thought of as “old news”) was revised slightly higher, and was the strongest quarter of economic growth in more than six years. But Existing Home Sales
Loan Agents Comment on New Good Faith Estimate I didn’t plan on yesterday’s Real Words From a Real Agent to incite such a firestorm of e-mails. But first, some “Good Faith Estimate chatter.” The grace period of the new GFE is set forth pretty clearly. But lenders are finding out that what HUD allows and
Comeback For Jumbo Loans What is the American Securitization Forum? Darned if I know, exactly, but they were meeting in Washington DC and came out with a statement conjecturing that non-agency product (a $1.2 trillion market 4-5 years ago, $25 billion in ’08 and $44 billion in ’09) may start to be securitized again later
On the possibility of Fannie and Freddie going away, one clever rep wrote to me and asked, “Do we really need FNMA, FHA, and FHLMC when it is all government run anyway? They could start a new entity named “Federally Regulated Committee to Normalize Mortgage Securities”, or “FRCNMS” – pronounced “FRICKEN MESS”. IRS Definition of
In Favor Of Bank Tax Yesterday I noted a few comments by Warren B. about the tax on banks. In an effort to give equal time, many feel that a bank tax is fine. They say that because the government is already giving the banks money at 0% and the banks are buying treasuries and
Consumer Confusion Over Loan Disclosures One loan agent wrote and said, “This week we sat down with a borrower that is doing an FHA loan. The seller is paying all of the closing costs and as usual the borrower is financing the upfront MIP. Essentially the borrower is coming in with their 3.5% down payment.
Rate Update & Market Preview Rates are down about .125% from last week as mortgage bonds rallied on weak retail sales, benign consumer inflation, and well-received Treasury auctions. The extent of the bond rally would suggest lower rates, but lenders are holding the line on pricing to see if the rally holds next week. When
Housing Markets After Government Help Ends There is no one that will disagree with the statement that the mortgage markets benefited from government intervention last year. And practically everyone believes that, given the significant challenges housing is facing, the government will stay focused and do whatever it takes to support the market. For this reason,
A common question among mortgage shoppers is: what if rates get better after I lock a rate for my loan? The answer is that locking a rate is much like buying a stock. When you choose to buy a stock at a specified price, you’re executing a Limit Order. This means you set the price
First Bank Failure of 2010 The first bank to fail this year is Horizon Bank (WA), with 18 branches that are now being run by Washington Federal Savings and Loan Association, who also assumed all of Horizon’s $1.1 billion of deposits. More On Friday’s Jobs Report As you can imagine, the economists spent the weekend
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