MBA's Killmer on election stakes for mortgage players

With the November elections set to impact future policies and laws affecting real estate and housing finance professionals, one of the biggest trade groups advocating mortgage lenders, the Mortgage Bankers Association, is heading for a very busy stretch. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, a major achievement for former president Trump in 2017, is set to lapse in 2025. What happens with that going forward will determine the future of both housing and business tax incentives, said the MBA's Senior Vice President for Legislative and Political Affairs, Bill Killmer. "We're going to be strongly playing defense for real estate and business provisions to make sure that those aren't utilized as 'pay-fors'," he said, referring to policies that could be chopped in budget-balancing decisions.? Killmer spoke to National Mortgage News about the policies of interest to the mortgage industry, up for discussion for an incoming Congress and Oval Office.

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Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac lower some hurdles to payment relief

Two major government-related mortgage investors, at the direction of their regulator and conservator, are updating a key vehicle that helps seriously delinquent borrowers, who have long-term income reductions and distressed mortgages, to afford monthly payments. The upcoming changes in the Flex Modification program that government-sponsored enterprises Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae offer to qualified borrowers respond to lessons learned from the pandemic and the market's high home-equity levels and financing costs. The updates set for later this year will give struggling borrowers "a meaningful mortgage payment reduction in the current environment of elevated interest rates and home prices," Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Sandra Thompson said in a press release.

20 bank lenders with the largest total mortgage origination volume

The top five lenders in the ranking have an average origination volume of more than $7 billion as of the end of the first quarter of 2024. While most banks saw a decrease in volume between Q4 of 2023 and Q1 of 2024, one increased its volume by 42.91%. The data was sourced from National Mortgage News' MortgageStats site, which pulls from quarterly call reports available from the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council. Read on to see which residential lenders are in the top 20 and how they fared through the end of March 2024.

Home price growth moderates as inventory improves

Following an early-year runup, home price growth eased to start the spring, as inventory also showed signs of improvement, according to the latest data from ICE Mortgage Technology. But despite the leveling off in prices, lack of affordability is still an obstacle in the current housing market, with both supply and demand running below usual norms, the mortgage technology unit of Intercontinental Exchange said. Annual housing costs grew 5.1% in April, slowing down from increases of 5.7% and 6.1% the prior two months, according to ICE's Home Price Index.?

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