Jumbo News, Lenders & Loan Amount Changes

By rchrisman@robchrisman.com

(Thank you to Ann M. for this one.)

Did you know commas save lives? 

"Let's eat Grandma!"

"Let's eat, Grandma!"

Diving into product news, there are developments in the jumbo/non-conforming arena.

 "Anyone doing business in the Jumbo space should look at Parkside Lending's suite of Jumbo products. With four different Jumbo programs, Parkside offers aggressive pricing and robust guidelines. Products include both fixed rates and ARMs. And they offer LTVs as high as 95%. Please contact your Parkside Account executive for more information or Sales."

 JMAC Lending has a new non-agency program, with greater flexibility on LTVs. Highlights of JMAC Lending's Newport Non-Agency program include cash-out up to 90%, purchase up to 95%, loan amounts from $100K up to $2.5 million, NO mortgage insurance, and loss mitigations with seasoning as low as 2 years.

 In conjunction with the updated FHFA loan limits, Plaza's minimum loan amount on Elite Jumbo will change accordingly. Effective for all locks on or after December 1, the minimum loan amount on Elite Jumbo loans is now $424,101 or $1 above the conforming limit for the number of units.

 On the conventional conforming side of things there are plenty of changes - mostly concerning loan amounts for 2017. But there is vendor news also regarding Fannie & Freddie programs.

 Equifax Inc. announced that its "industry-leading employment verification services, provided by Equifax Workforce Solutions (a business unit of Equifax Inc.) became available Dec. 10 as part of the Fannie Mae DU validation service. Equifax will now also offer asset verification services, available through its alliance with asset technology service provider AccountChek Company, LLC. The employment and asset verification services join the instant and manual income verification services and the IRS tax transcript fulfilment service that were made available through the same program as of Oct. 24. The IRS tax transcript fulfilment services aids lenders in retrieving tax transcripts directly from the IRS and can provide added data around a consumer's additional sources of income.

 One of the cool new features of Fannie Mae's 10.0 update is the property inspection waiver. This means that if you get the findings for it when running DU, NO APPRAISAL is needed on the refinance. This will include SFR and condo's only (no 2-4 units) and up to 90% LTV. To get the PIW (property insp. Waiver) the borrowers on the refinance MUST have been on the prior transaction where the data was submitted from the prior appraisal to Fannie.

 Flagstar's Loantrac was updated on Friday, December 9 to allow registration of loans at the higher conforming loan limits.  Fannie Mae announced that the new loan limits will be updated in Desktop Underwriter on December 10. Freddie Mac announced that Loan Product Advisor was updated on December 2. Please be sure that your submitted AUS findings reflect the appropriate loan amount. There are no closing/note date restrictions. Remember that any loan amount changes that cause the product to change on an already locked loan may be subject to worse case pricing. If you are requesting a loan amount increase on an already submitted loan, submit an updated 1003.

 HomeBridge Wholesale is offering Property Inspection Waiver on Rate/Term, Cash-Out and Condo Eligible transactions. Max LTV is determined by occupancy and transaction type.

 As of Monday, December 12^th, PRMG is allowing Conventional Loans with increased standard balance limits to be submitted, locked and funded. High Balance/Super Conforming Loans with updated loan amounts must be submitted, locked and funded by January 1^st, 2017. Existing cases can be resubmitted to the applicable AUS system to take advantage of the higher loan limits but would be subject to any standard underwriting and pricing policies for loan amount changes.

 Stearns announced that the new 2017 Agency Loan Limits will be available in SNAP 2.0 on Monday, December 12^th. Watch for further announcements on Stearns Lending's roll-out of Fannie Mae's Day 1 Certainty and associated benefits that will be integrated into SNAP 2.0.

 In reference to the 2017 loan limit increase, Franklin American Mortgage Company loans may be locked using the new higher loan amounts effective 12/05/2016. For loans currently locked looking to take advantage of the new loan limits, the request must be submitted to the Lock Desk at secondary@franklinamerican.com. Standard pricing policy applies which may result in a price change.  Additionally, if a lock has expired, worst-case pricing policy applies. If the loan has been submitted to underwriting, and the borrower requests to take advantage of the loan limit increases, the loan must be re-submitted to Underwriting/AUS for consideration.  Regardless of lock status, all loans must be submitted/re-submitted to DU or LP/LPA and receive an Approve/Eligible or Accept recommendation in accordance with the time frames outlined above.  

 Ditech's documentation guidelines for borrowers who are starting new employment after the note date of the loan have been revised. This change applies to loans with an LPA decision in a Freddie Mac Eligible product with an application dated on or after December 5, 2016. All loans underwritten using the expiring guidelines with an application date prior to December 5, 2016 must be closed and delivered by January 15, 2017.

 On 10/24/2016, Fannie Mae published SEL-2016-08, announcing various Selling Guide updates, as well as DU Validation Services and Enhanced PIWs, components of Fannie Mae's Day 1 Certainty program. Review AmeriHome's recent announcement for resulting changes to guidelines.

 Arch MI is all-in with Fannie Mae's 10.0 update. It will support the following: DU Validation for Income (effective immediately) DU Validation for Assets, and Employment (effective December 10^th, 2016) and Property Inspection Waiver (PIW) (December 10^th, 2016). Arch's EZ Decisioning program follows DU requirements, the DU Validation Service changes do not imp as an acceptable type, in addition to a full appraisal. As per the announcement, use of a PIW requires a DU Recommendation of Approve/Eligible, and is applicable for limited cash-out refinances up to a maximum 90% LTV. All the announced changes will be accepted under Arch MI's EZ Decisioning program. Arch MI's EZ Decisioning Program applies to loans with a DU approval.act our guidelines and will be eligible on their effective date, with no guideline changes required. For the PIW change, Arch MI will update our EZ Decisioning^SM guidelines to include this

 Parkside Lending began accepting locks and submissions with new loan amounts beginning December 5. Loans previously locked or submitted can be changed to the new higher limits, after December 5, using the standard change request process. In addition, loans may fund and be purchased effective December 5. The 2017 loan limits will be implemented in FNMA DU for Version 9.3 or Version 10.0 loan casefiles as follows: Loan casefiles submitted on or after the weekend of December 10, will be underwritten with the new general loan limits. Loan casefiles submitted on or after January 1, 2017, will be underwritten with the new high-cost area loan limits. 

 Regarding the new loan limits, NewLeaf Wholesale will accept applications and locks at the new loan limits for FNMA/FHLMC (NewLeaf 1 and NewLeaf 2) products effective immediately. Its manual lock process must be followed until January 1, 2017 to lock the loans impacted by these increased loan limits. Effective December 1, 2016 through December 31, 2016, when requesting a lock under the increased loan limits, the Broker must request the lock online with the highest loan amount currently allowed and then send an email to the Wholesale Lock Desk requesting the loan amount be changed to the higher loan amount.  The Lock Desk will update the loan amount and send a lock confirmation.

 Looking at rates, the U.S. Treasury market took some minor losses Monday with the 10-year hitting 2.53% but ended well above its worst levels. Agency MBS prices ended unchanged - that's good, right? The Treasury auctioned 3-year and 10-year notes. Demand for the sale of $20 billion 10-year notes was mediocre and this week's new Treasury issuance ends with the $12 billion 30-year reopening today. Overseas to start the week Chinese stocks had their worst sell-off in six months as concerns about trade frictions as well as a regulatory crackdown on insurance companies buying equities spooked investors.

 Today we've had the NFIB Small Business Optimism Index for November (which shot up to 98.4 from 94.9 as a result of the election) and November's import and export prices (-.3% and -.1%). The U.S. Treasury will auction off $12 billion in 30-year bonds. Day one of the FOMC's two-day meeting also starts today, with the rate decision tomorrow. For rates the 10-year note closed Monday yielding 2.48% and this morning its at 2.44% with MBS prices better nearly .250 versus Monday's closing levels.