CFPB goes after Lender and Realtors
I have been indicating for quite a few months, that Realtors are going to start getting hammered by the CFPB, and on Tuesday, Keller William and ReMax in Oregon, got slammed…ouch.
I would HIGHLY, HIGHLY recommend that everyone in the industry read the CFPB finding, it is 26 pages, and is really amazing what they had to say was violations of RESPA section 8.
Link to CFPB: http://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/newsroom/cfpb-orders-prospect-mortgage-pay-35-million-fine-illegal-kickback-scheme/
I am pretty sure everyone in Idaho can associate at least 1 of the violations, if not more, to agents, builders and lenders here locally.
Link here to the official press release, and then about ¾ way down, is the Consent Order, this is what everyone in the industry REALLY needs to read.
And FYI, it seem that the CFPB has chosen to ignore any statute of limitation. Typically, in our industry it is 3 years, but as you can see, the CFPB went back 5 years.
And this is also just the beginning for lender and the Realtors, the Feds are now done, but:
-State of Oregon I am sure is investigating.
-Any borrower, who can prove they were harmed, can also go after 3x the amount they were harmed, plus attorney fees.
-And if any Realtor from Oregon, referred a borrower, say to an agent in Idaho, that agent could be investigated as well.
I am thinking there are going to be quite a few builders and Realtors around here who are going to be calling their attorneys this week.
But you know who is happy about this finding….Wells Fargo…why…because for 1 week, they are not in the news!
VA Loan changes
VA last week, brought out new guidelines on how to calculate student loans when qualifying for a mortgage. The new rule went into affect immediately on 1/27/2017 and is such that if a student loan is in deferment, forbearance or income based repayment, then we have to take the amount of the student loan, say $25,000 and multiply by 5% = $1250.00 and then divide by 12 =$104.17.
The $104.17 is what we have to use to calculate for the debt.
Not as tough as FHA, which we have to use 1% of the loan amount, i.e. $25,000 x 1% = $250.
But the change will affect future VA Veterans from getting a loan if they have a bunch of student loans.
Rates
Rates have been all over the board for the last 2 weeks, way up one day, way down the next. But what we are seeing is a gradual trend up. And today’s employment numbers have some people talking that the Federal Reserve may increase rate even more this year than anticipated.
Unemployment number came out today, 227,000 more people found jobs, vs. est. of 157,000, this was a pretty big number, will have to see if it get’s revised. But the word coming out of the Federal Reserve is the US will be at full employment very shortly.
Can you believe it has been 8 years since the recession! Unemployment in the US is 4.8% and around the Treasure Valley we are looking in the 3’s
Still in a locking mode, not worth ANY risk of catching the preverbal falling knife. Might get luck 1x, but cut all of the other times
Down Payment Assistance
IHA has updaded all of their Down Payment Assistance Programs for 2017, and for the most part they improved them, quite Nicely!!!!
IHA now has anywhere from $2000 to $14,999 for down payment assistance and closing costs. This along with the Boise City Down Payment programs, makes is pretty easy to get into a home with little or NO money out of your pocket.
I have sent up web site for DPA, follow the link here: Down Payment Assistance