Tag Archives: Credit Standards

Banks lowered mortgage lending standards in the third quarter of 2015, according to the Federal Reserve's Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey on Bank Lending Practices.

Mortgage lenders are feeling more positive on purchase mortgage demand, profit margin, and credit standards over the next three months, according to a recent Fannie Mae’s second quarter 2015 Mortgage Lender Sentiment Survey. The survey shows that lenders’ near-term outlook for purchase demand and profit margin are reaching higher levels than 2014’s survey results.

In a recent posting on Freddie’s blog, Boyle encourages mortgage seekers to keep in mind the “four Cs” ‒‒ the main four things lenders look at when deciding whether to write a loan. First there is the borrower’s capacity to repay the loan.

Based on a sample of loans originated on the company's platform, Ellie Mae reported that refinances accounted for 51 percent of loan volume in January, a jump of 8 percentage points from December. The spike put refinance share at its highest in more than a year and a half.

Loosening mortgage standards in the last few months failed to spur demand from borrowers, according to responses in the Federal Reserve's latest Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey. Jibing with another recent survey from Fannie Mae, larger banks were about twice as likely to report easier standards in any given category as smaller institutions.

Calculating from a sampling of mortgage applications initiated on its Encompass platform, technology provider Ellie Mae estimated this week that home purchase mortgages accounted for 56 percent of lending activity last month, up from 54 percent in November.

In the latest Beige Book report released on Wednesday, the Fed said that contacts in most of its 12 districts expect faster growth in the year ahead, though some in the Dallas district are worried about a slowdown as the oil market suffers.

In its latest look at the RMBS segment, Fitch says that while the market still has some rebuilding left to do, it "has seen some rather substantial improvements of late," owing in large part to improved loan underwriting standards in recent years. According to the company, the performance of recent vintage mortgage loans is the best on record so far.

Out of a sample of closed loans drawn from Ellie Mae's origination platform last month, 45 percent were refinances, the company reported Wednesday. November's refinance share marked a 5 percentage point increase from October and was the same as a year ago. "Winter is normally a slow time for housing sales, yet the increase in refinancing volume is protecting many lenders from the cold," said Jonathan Corr, president and COO of Ellie Mae.

In a poll of senior mortgage officers conducted in November, Fannie Mae found consumer demand was down across all categories of home purchase loans, with only 42 percent of respondents reporting increases in demand for GSE-eligible loans, 43 percent for non-GSE loans, and 29 percent for government loans. Those shares compare to 53 percent, 65 percent, and 43 percent, respectively, in the third quarter.