The intent is noble most mortgage borrowers are indeed locked in by low interest rates from the pandemic, draining liquidity from the housing market and not allowing these borrowers to relocate when they should. The reality is more complicated this one-time fix is very hard to implement, would potentially cost MBS investors hundreds of billions, and could make GSE IPOs unviable. Instead, the FHFA should lay the groundwork for us not to have this conversation next time around.
We're on the tail end of the buying season, and we are seeing potential indications of occupancy fraud to investigate it but it wouldn't be anything more significant than what we have come to expect just being in a higher volume set of months, Amanda Tucker, chief risk and compliance officer at Atlantic Bay Mortgage Group, said in an interview with HousingWire. Atlantic Bay reviews all origination files prior to closing to flag potential issues.
The GSEs are implementing a redesigned Uniform Residential Appraisal Report (URAR) that consolidates forms into a single, data-driven layout. This streamlines conventional lending appraisal forms into one consistent standardized report.
"We question this fascination and obsession with releasing the GSEs in the first place because we don't understand what objectives it would actually achieve from a policymaker perspective."