The MReport Webcast: Friday 8/15/2014

Mortgage regulations introduced this year may have forced lenders to turn up their quality controls, but most don’t anticipate any change in their operational strategy. In a follow-up on its first-ever Mortgage Lender Sentiment Survey, Fannie Mae found that most of the lenders surveyed don't plan to change their current direction in response to the CFPB’s ability to repay or qualified mortgage rules, with 46 percent saying they plan to wait and see what happens in the market before acting.

More than one-third of lenders surveyed said they don't plan to pursue any business that doesn't fit under the QM umbrella, while less than one in five plan to actively go after that part of the market. Larger institutions, which are more secure in their ability to take the risk of non-QM lending, were more likely to say they want to expand in that direction, while smaller and mid-sized firms were more likely to say they plan to stay away from that segment. Overall, Fannie found the vast majority of firms expect to keep their non-QM share at 10 percent or less of their total single-family originations.

Home sales made with cash slipped again in May, falling to a four-year low but remaining elevated compared to the long-run average. According to sales data put together by CoreLogic, cash sales made up 34.4 percent of total home sales in May, down from 37.4 percent a year prior. It was the lowest share since May 2010, when all-cash sales started ramping up to an eventual peak in January 2011. Despite 17 straight months of year-over-year declines, the share of cash sales is still abnormally high, nearly 10 percentage points more than the pre-crisis average of 25 percent.