Loan Think

The Community Home Lenders of America's latest report finds that independent mortgage banks picked up the slack as many large banks abandoned mortgage lending or imposed credit overlays, two of its members say.

The Federal Home Loan banks and their clients were well represented in the Federal Housing Finance Agency's recent "listening tour." The public, not so much.

But conspicuously missing from the mortgage industry's discussions about affordability, housing equity and the future health of our industry is the growing, disruptive influence of single-family home investors, particularly institutional investors, writes the president of Down Payment Resource.

The Fed may be the big factor in the massive fluctuations seen daily in the TBA markets, but traders and credit analysts now also fear a new problem in the heretofore peaceful world of Ginnie Mae, writes the chairman of Whalen Global Advisors.

Investor activity in the housing market has had a nominal impact on the cost of housing, the head of the National Rental Home Council writes, citing research by one of the government-sponsored enterprises. Supply-demand imbalance is the primary driver of price appreciation, he argues.

"To talk about 95% of issuers by count being compliant without recognizing that a very large number of issuers hold few MSRs is disingenuous," one industry executive told the chairman of Whalen Global Advisors.

The country's largest banks should deepen partnerships with minority depository institutions and community development financial institutions, and regulators should facilitate that process.

After 90 years, it is time to examine whether the system is still fulfilling its intended mission to provide liquidity for its members to make mortgages.

Financial downturns hit lower-wealth communities first and cause them to suffer the longest.

Ginnie Mae has constructed a perfectly counter-cyclical capital regime that would crush the government loan market if left unaltered, the chair of Whalen Global Advisors writes.