Good Morning!
You may not be aware of it, but last week rates increased.
This comes from a surprise announcement from conventional mortgage regulators (Fannie and Freddie or, collectively, the “GSEs”) that they will collect a new fee on all refinances. Any loan that’s not already very close to the closing table will be affected.
The new fee is one half of one percent of the loan amount.
The GSEs have justified this increase due to the fact that they will be paying out claims to mortgage investors on a significant number of loans in forbearance. In most cases, it was the mortgage servicers who’d been making those payments (certain loans require investors to be paid even if the homeowner is not paying).
There are a lot of people that are unhappy about this. Ultimately it hurts everyone that might be interested in refinancing. It also hurts our country. We are trying to work through a recovery, and we need as much economic activity as we can get. This will significantly damage the refinance push.
That’s it for today!
Have a good day!
Brett