Mortgages

While financing costs are still low enough to offset sticker-shock from rising home prices, a slight increase in the average 30-year conforming rate weighed on borrowers, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

The subsidiary of New Residential Investment produced nearly $400 million in non-QM volume in the first quarter of 2020 before putting a hold on the product offering in March.

The Financial Stability Oversight Council could determine that a broad range of mortgage companies should be subject to “heightened prudential standards,” said Andrew Olmem, a partner at Mayer Brown and a former senior economic adviser to the White House.

If new housing policy initiatives are not adopted by Congress, the Biden Administration may seek to push the GSEs into receivership, which would damage the conventional market, columnist and analyst Chris Whalen says.

The Biden administration could encourage the FHFA to increase the caps or restore exclusions for certain types of loans, which would boost overall volumes.

Declining month-over-month delinquency levels and the rollout of COVID-19 vaccinations potentially give hope to more normalized economic activity.

Mortgage applications decreased 1.9% from one week earlier as rising rates started to affect refinance activity, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

The government-sponsored enterprises’ moratoria will now continue well past inauguration day, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

Upcoming changes to underwriting regulations, as well as the end of the QM patch, in addition to growing home values, all add up for this market to have a good year.

Despite mortgage rates expected to rise modestly in 2021, a bolstered Biden administration stimulus package and COVID-19 vaccination efforts bring promise for economic recovery.