August 24, 2020

As pressure mounts, will the FHFA delay new refi fee?

7 minutes

In today’s Daily Download episode, HousingWire covers speculation on whether not the Federal Housing Finance Agency is delaying the implementation of a fee that would add a 0.5% surcharge to refinance mortgages sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

For some background on the story, here’s a summary of the article:

According to reporting by the Wall Street Journal on Saturday, the Federal Housing Finance Agency has been communicating with mortgage industry groups about delaying the implementation of a fee which would add a 0.5% surcharge to refinance mortgages sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac starting Sept. 1.

According to the article, the FHFA is considering a delay to the adverse market fee implementation date, but is not planning to rescind it. The FHFA has been widely criticized both for the reasoning given for the fee and the short three-week notice to lenders and homeowners already in the middle of a refinance process.

Dave Stevens, former president and CEO of the Mortgage Bankers Association and former commissioner of the Federal Housing Administration, told HousingWire on Saturday that, “If true, it seems clear that Director Calabria listened to industry concerns about the impact of this short time frame to implement. And while the logic of the fee remains in question, this is a good sign and hopefully will lead to a change in behavior going forward where impact assessment conversations can take place prior to major policy announcements.”

Following the main story, HousingWire covers an announcement from the Federal Reserve that it has purchased about $892 billion of agency mortgage-backed securities, and a claim from a research associate at the Urban Institute that there’s a problem with the data measuring delinquency and forbearance requests.

The Daily Download examines the most compelling articles reported from the HousingWire newsroom. Each afternoon, we provide our listeners with a deeper look into the stories coming across our newsroom that are helping Move Markets Forward. Hosted by the HW team and produced by Alcynna Lloyd.

HousingWire articles covered in this episode:

Is the FHFA about to delay the refi fee?

Fed purchases of agency MBS total $892 billion

There’s a problem with the data measuring delinquency and forbearance

...more