Reconsideration of value rules delayed two months

The secondary market is delaying new reconsideration of value procedures that had been set to go into effect at the end of the month.

Concurrently, the Department of Housing and Urban Development is doing the same for its Federal Housing Administration mortgage insurance program.

All three set the same date, Oct. 31 for mortgage lenders to comply with the new rules.

The new rules were rolled out by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in May, around the same time HUD issued a mortgagee letter on the topic. 

"Feedback gathered after the ROV announcement revealed more time was needed for lenders to meet all the elements outlined in our policy," a Fannie Mae selling notice put out on Aug. 6 said. "As the formalization is unique to the industry, in coordination with Freddie Mac and HUD, we have extended the implementation date by 60 days to provide more time for lenders to develop and deploy the requirements of the ROV policy."

However, the notice adds that even with the postponement, lenders "are encouraged to implement" these new ROV procedures immediately.

Fannie Mae will be publishing an FAQ later in August, the notice added.

Freddie Mac's memo was terse, just stating it was acting in order to give its sellers more time to implement the change.

The original FHA implementation date was slightly later than that of the government-sponsored enterprises, on Sept. 2.

Similar to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the FHA "carefully considered industry feedback…and recognizes the challenges for mortgagees to operationalize this important policy update properly and effectively within the original 120-day time frame," an Aug. 6 HUD bulletin said. "Therefore, FHA is providing additional time beyond the previously announced effective date to ensure mortgagees have sufficient time for implementation."

The industry also welcomed the delay.

"Last month MBA engaged with FHFA, HUD and the GSEs, urging them to postpone the implementation of the policy to give lenders sufficient time to properly develop and test their systems to ensure compliance with the policy," a Mortgage Bankers Association spokesperson said in a statement. "We are pleased that they listened to our concerns and issued the delay."

The Community Home Lenders of America, which represents small- and mid-sized independent mortgage bankers, while backing the goals of the new ROV rules, also agreed with the time frame extension.

"CHLA is very appreciative of the implementation delay," Scott Olson, executive director, said in a statement. "We share the goal of eliminating appraisal bias, but our concerns were the short time frame for compliance changes, so an extension will mean a more successful implementation."

Separately during July, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, in conjunction with other regulators, issued guidelines on the use of automated value models. Prior to that, HUD entered into a settlement with the Appraisal Foundation resolving a complaint "alleging discriminatory barriers preventing qualified Black people and other persons of color from entering the appraisal profession on the basis of race in violation of the Fair Housing Act."

FHA program participants are still free to put the rules spelled out in the May mortgagee letter into effect now, the latest memo said.

National Mortgage News reached out to the Department of Veterans Affairs regarding any changes to its reconsideration of value guidelines for its mortgage guarantee program.