Ashley, Kevin and I had the opportunity to attend the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) Annual Conference and Expo this past week in Austin, Texas. Some of the key takeaways from the many speakers at the conference included:
Jean Chatzky – Women and Money
Jill attended the annual “Women in Residential Lending” session. Chatzky is the financial editor of the NBC Today show. Two important points made by Ms. Chatzky were:
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- Women control the majority of wealth in the US, so it's important they learn effective wealth management.
- Many women err on the side of keeping their assets safe, foregoing important earnings by balancing safety and growth.
Economic Forecast:
Purchase originations are expected to increase 1.6 percent to $1.29 trillion in 2020. After a surge in activity in 2019, The MBA anticipates refinance originations will slow next year, decreasing by 24.5 percent to $599 billion.
The MBA forecasts total mortgage originations will come in around $2.06 trillion this year - the best since 2007 ($2.31 trillion) - before likely decreasing to around $1.89 trillion in 2020. In 2021, the MBA expects purchase originations to total around $1.33 trillion, and refinance originations to reach $432 billion ($1.74 trillion total).
Mike Fratantoni, The MBA's Chief Economist and Senior Vice President for Research and Industry Technology, says that geopolitical uncertainty and a slowdown in the global economy together were the driving force behind this year's increased financial market volatility and drop in interest rates. He expects these headwinds to continue, which will lead to slower economic growth in the United States next year.
FHFA Commissioner Mark Calabria
The job of the FHFA (Federal Housing Finance Agency) is to ensure the Government Sponsored Entities (“GSE’s”) - Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac- operate in a safe and sound manner so that they serve as a reliable source of liquidity and funding for housing finance and community investment. The top priority for FHFA is the reform and restructuring of the GSE’s, which have been under government receivership since the housing crisis.
Fannie Mae Director, Hugh Frater, and Freddie Mac Director, David Brinkman
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are the largest entities that pay lenders for mortgage loans originated by the lenders. Instead of waiting for monthly payments on 30-year mortgage loans, lenders receive a one-time cash payment from Freddie and Fannie and use the money to make more loans for new borrowers. Fannie and Freddie then bundle the loans purchased and sell them to investors in the secondary market. Both of the GSE directors also emphasized their key priorities of reforming and restructuring Fannie and Freddie to remove government receivership.
HUD Sec. Ben Carson
The Housing and Urban Development’s current key initiative is focusing on empowering people to leave HUD-assisted housing through self-sufficiency to become responsible homeowners and renters in the private market. HUD administers the FHA (Federal Housing Administration), which guarantees loans given by lenders to those who may not otherwise qualify for mortgage loans.
Other important topics included:
Digital Mortgages
One lender on this panel indicated they had saved $500 per loan by replacing paper with digital processes throughout the mortgage process. To put this in perspective, the average profit per loan in 2018 was less than this amount! The industry is gaining traction toward adopting paperless processes.
Washington Update
Former Governors Chris Christie of New Jersey and Terry McAuliffe of Virginia presented their thoughts on current political events with Margaret Brennan, host of CBS’s Face the Nation as moderator. This exchange gave hope that our political system can be more than hyper-partisan opposing groups hating each other. Although the former governors disagreed greatly on many points, they acted as friends, convincingly articulated their points of view, and were highly respectful to each other. They both strongly agreed that governors, with responsibility for delivering every day for their states on roads, budgets, and passing legislation with both sides of the aisle, are far better candidates for the presidency, than senators or others without the experience of running large governmental administrations.
