Capital rule's impact on mortgage risk offsets worries industry
National Mortgage News
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One driver of fears housing finance stakeholders have had about the bank capital proposal's potential for pushing affected depositories out further out of home lending is its disregard for certain accepted forms of risk management broadly used in the mortgage industry. That theme is evident in several Basel III endgame comment-period reactions specific to first-lien single-family loans. The most commonly-cited example is private mortgage insurance, which capital rules for prominent government-related home loan agencies and current bank regs generally account for, but new rules for depositories essentially wouldn't. "This proposal fails to recognize MI," Seth Appleton, president of U.S. Mortgage Insurers. To be sure, bank regulators have a reason for not adjusting for MI in their proposal that's tied to some failures during the financial crisis .
Home prices sustained their upward trajectory to end 2023, even seeing the largest pace of growth in over a year, according to Redfin. The median sales price of homes in the U.S. accelerated 4% on a year-over-year basis to $403,714 in December, the online real estate broker said. The annual surge was the greatest since October 2022, surpassing November's 3.7% rise.? A combination of factors continue to propel price growth, including elevated demand arriving after a swift pullback in interest rates late last year. But the leading reason behind current price levels remains scarce supply , Redfin said.
Loandepot announced Thursday it restored some of its systems following a cyber breach that hit the lender in early January . Nonetheless, fallout from the attack continues to weigh down on the lender and servicer's operations. Mellohome's website, the MyLoandepot customer portal and the HELOC portal have been rebooted, the company wrote on its website. Loandepot's servicing customer portal is also back online with limited functionality. It remains unclear what other systems are still down. A company spokesman declined to comment. In the past week, current customers of the mortgage shop have complained across different social media channels that they cannot make payments on their mortgage and therefore they may incur late fees.
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A 12.5% increase in the ceiling on the low-income housing tax credit program would be restored if Congress passes a broader bipartisan proposal for tax relief. The bill, H.R. 7024, the Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act of 2024, was introduced on Jan. 17 by Rep. Jason Smith, R.-Mo.; its Senate sponsor is Ron Wyden, D.-Ore.? The House Ways and Means Committee marked up the bill on Jan. 19. Normally, the states have a 9% limit on LIHTC allocations. For tax years 2018 to 2021, that ceiling was increased by 12.5%.
Millions of Americans won't be reminded of financing a home this Super Bowl Sunday. Industry giants Rocket Mortgage and United Wholesale Mortgage confirmed they won't be airing advertisements during the NFL's marquee event in Las Vegas Feb. 11, as they have in years past. The companies have seven Super Bowl commercial appearances between them, which typically cost millions of dollars for a 30-second ad.? "Candidly speaking, we haven't done the work to define the strategic idea for the brand and ultimately the creative idea for the brand," said Jonathan Mildenhall, Rocket's new chief marketing officer, in a recent interview with Ad Age .
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