Study shows seismic shift in lending away from large banks to non-banks continued in February By Stephen D. Oliner, Edward J. Pinto and Brian C. Marein. A new study released by the AEI International Center on Housing Risk found that the seismic shift in home purchase loan originations away from large banks to non-banks continued […]
SUMMARY: First-time buyers accounted for nearly 56 percent of primary owner-occupied home purchase mortgages with a government guarantee, up slightly from the prior February. The Combined FBMSI (which measures the share of first-time buyers for both government-guaranteed and private-sector mortgages) stood at an estimated 50 percent. The number of primary owner-occupied purchase mortgages going to […]
Androscoggin Bank of Lewiston, ME introduced the first market rate program Wealth Building Home Loan with a soft launch back in November (called the Wealth Builder Home Loan). The response has been enthusiastic—5 closed loans and a total pipeline (including closed loans) of $3.3 million in the dead of winter—impressive results for a $700 million […]
AEI’s National Mortgage Risk Index for Agency purchase loans hit a series high of 11.84% in December, with FHA and VA hitting their own series highs. The addition of about 215,000 loans brought the total number of risk-rated loans to 5.3 million. Link to view the full January 2015 presentation. Below is a summary. All of the […]
The National Mortgage Risk Index (NMRI) for Agency purchase loans rose in November to 11.69%, up from the average of 11.29% for the prior three months (revised). The risk indices for Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, the FHA, and the VA all hit series highs in November. “The increase in risk for all the major government […]
Notwithstanding statements to the contrary by many public officials, credit conditions today are not tight when compared to the early-1990s (today is generally much looser) or early-2000s (some tighter, some not). As a result, recent announcements by public officials to spur looser lending are cause for great concern. Below is a slide which chronicles credit […]
Wealth Building Home Loans are fixed-rate, 15-year loans that build equity much faster than a 30-year mortgage. By William M. Isaac and Edward Pinto Sales of existing homes in August were down 5.3% year-over-year. The housing lobby says credit is too tight. The commissioner of the Federal Housing Administration and the director of the Federal Housing […]
The Wealth Building Home Loan (WBHL), a new approach to home finance, opened to rave reviews at the American Mortgage Conference held September 8-10. Six leaders of national stature made favorable comments from the podium. Lewis Ranieri, considered the “godfather” of mortgage finance, in his keynote address praised the WBHL: “Fundamentally, what I find exciting is the […]
American Enterprise Institute’s International Center on Housing Risk has assembled of a bibliography of historically significant valuation and mortgage risk books and documents from the first half of the 20th century. The oldest book (1903) is Richard Hurd’s Principles of City Land Values. This book is widely considered to be the first United States’ treatise on city (non-farm) land values. A few […]
Washington, DC, May 12, 2014—American Enterprise Institutes’s National Mortgage Risk Index (NMRI) for home purchase loans hit a new series’ high of 11.89% for April, up from 11.50% in March. The increase was due to FHA, which had higher market share and increasing loan level risk. The FHA’s April home purchase volume was 41,756, an increase […]
Nearly 80 years ago Stewart McDonald, the Federal Housing Administration’s first administrator, observed: “To many people, ‘Mortgage’ became just another word for trouble—an epitaph on the tombstone of their aspirations for home ownership.” Over the last 7 years, the same epitaph has been written for many millions of aspiring homeowners. When established in 1934 by […]
Conventional wisdom states the three most important things in real estate are: location, location, location. This wisdom is especially true today since market fundamentals and local conditions vary greatly across the US. Thus, not surprisingly, the answer depends on location. Nationally, homes look overpriced, but there can be great variations on a regional or even […]
The Great Housing Boom and Bust: Lessons Relearned was a presentation made at last week’s Eastern Secondary Mortgage Conference sponsored by the Florida Mortgage bankers Association. Below are three slides from The Great Housing Boom and Bust: Lessons Relearned. The take-aways include: Real estate leverage (both nominal and intrinsic) are at historically high levels. The National Mortgage […]
The homeownership rate, as reported by the US Census Bureau, stands today at 65.3 percent. When adjusted for the millions of homeowners who are seriously delinquent, the rate drops to 62.7 percent. This is virtually unchanged from the rate of 61.9 percent in 1960, notwithstanding a dramatic loosening of lending standards over the last 50-plus […]
The American Enterprise Institute presents a case study of crony advocacy in proposed rule writing. Please watch this video featuring experts on HUD’s distortion of local housing markets. The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) released its long-awaited proposal “Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing” in July with the intent of restructuring zoning practices in local […]