The credit will be extended to families who qualify for the company’s Home Possible and HFA Advantage products. The program is scheduled to begin March 1.

“This new effort continues the progress we made in 2023 and is particularly important in today’s housing market, where elevated rates and low supply have created affordability challenges for many families,” said Sonu Mittal, head of Freddie Mac’s single-family acquisitions division, in a statement. “We look forward to announcing additional ways to support low-income borrowers in the months ahead.”

Fannie Mae announced last month a similar $2,500 loan-level price adjustment for very low-income borrowers who are purchasing a home. Fannie’s credit can also be used for downpayment and closing costs.

Freddie Mac financed about 800,000 home purchases last year. First-time homebuyers represented approximately 51% of those purchases, the highest number since the company started tracking that statistic three decades ago.

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“Projects in need of critical repairs or that have significant deferred maintenance can result in unsafe living conditions, evacuations and uninhabitable homes,” a Fannie Mae spokesperson writes in an email. “In addition, special assessments for these types of issues can result in a substantial financial hardship for homeowners — especially low-income or first-time homebuyers — which can put them at risk for loan default and foreclosure.”

One of the practical effects of these changes is that more condo loans are being rejected or delayed, says Dawn Bauman, chief strategy officer for the Community Associations Institute, which advocates for condo associations as well as the 74 million people living in these developments. Her organization sent a survey to members last year. Of the 541 respondents, about one-quarter said that loans in their condominium developments were denied due to the new requirements while more than one-third experienced significant delays.

Bauman says that she’s concerned that the new rules apply to all condo projects with five or more attached units. Bauman also says that her membership learned that Fannie Mae maintains a list of condo projects for which they won’t purchase loans.

“The ineligible blacklist came to the surface after all of this,” Bauman says. “It was like, ‘Wait a second. There’s a list, actually?’ While it existed before, it wasn’t as big of a deal before because there weren’t that many projects on that list. It then became just a bigger deal after the new requirements came out.”

The Boston Globe reported last year that the number of U.S. condo projects on this list had grown to more than 2,300. Data and technology company CondoTek told the newspaper that the list numbered fewer than 300 projects the year before.

Fannie Mae reports that only 1.2% of condo projects were labeled as “unavailable” as of this past June. The agency also says that condo loan acquisitions totaled 9% of its single-family conventional business in both 2021 and 2022, an increase from 8% in 2020.

“Most projects that are currently listed as unavailable have other eligibility issues, such as active or pending significant litigation, hotel- or resort-type characteristics with transient occupancy, too much commercial space, or inadequate insurance,” according to Fannie Mae.

The Community Associations Institute, the Community Home Lenders of America (CHLA) and the National Association of Realtors asked the GSEs and its regulator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, for more transparency about the list of nonwarrantable projects. This past December, the GSEs annnounced plans to create an online tool for homeowners associations to identify whether they are on the list and what they need to do to be removed.

CHLA executive director Scott Olson applauds the move for increased transparency, saying that if the GSEs identify problems with a condo development, the association should be made aware so it can fix them. Olson says that his organization has been focused on prevention of overreactive policies. He hopes that the GSEs and other regulators scrutinize the underlying causes of the Champlain Towers South disaster. 

“You should worry about older buildings; you should worry about high rises,” Olson says. “You should worry about areas where there’s a lot of water. That was a big problem with Surfside — the water erosion. You shouldn’t just overreact and be really tough on everything.”

Bauman notes that condominiums tend to be an affordable option for first-time homebuyers, retirees and everyone in between. She remains concerned about what could cause the GSEs to reject loans from condo developments. Those could be everything from insurance requirements to special assessments. She notes that homeowners associations commonly levy assessments for such things as lobby construction or common-area improvements. What types of assessments could cause more delays or denials for condo loans?

“Transparency is awesome, of course,” Bauman says. “The next step will be to really evaluate whether these are reasonable requirements, or addressing liability concerns for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, while making sure they’re doing what they’re supposed to be doing for the American people, which is putting liquidity into the marketplace.” ●

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All is moving in the right direction until 10 unexpected loan buyback requests come in from Fannie Mae, costing a total of $1 million. The impetus for the repurchases are loan defects that were never caught during the prefunding stage of the fulfillment process.

“The process can be akin to roaming every thread of a spiderweb to find defects, but it’s worth it to take careful steps.”

Lenders always face some risks of buybacks, but Fannie Mae’s recent tightening of its prefunding quality control requirements is designed to prevent these types of scenarios. A lender must now conduct prefunding reviews on 10% of its closed loans or up to 750 loans per month (whichever is the lesser number).

This is a significant change for mortgage originators, who were not previously required to audit a set number of loans prior to funding — steps that can add unwanted time to the processing cycle. Fannie Mae took action after observing a sizable increase in eligibility violations for loans acquired during the year ending in April 2021. These violations frequently fell into key defect categories such as incorrect income calculations, the borrower’s unemployment status and undisclosed liabilities.

Detailed review

A prefunding quality control review is an audit that is completed on a sample of loans prior to closing, thus ensuring they’re free from defects. As part of the process, originators must document their review procedures and address four aspects — timing, loan selection, verification of data and documents, and reporting.

If they choose, lenders can complete a combination of full-file reviews and component reviews. In the latter case, quality control will focus on specific areas of a loan that pose a unique or elevated risk, such as a high loan-to-value (LTV) or debt-to-income (DTI) ratio.

 “Lenders should also be diligent about post-funding reviews, since Fannie Mae has imposed additional guardrails there too.”

Moreover, lenders must conduct reviews independently of their production department whenever possible. The people who complete these tasks cannot be involved in processing or underwriting decisions. The lender should design a plan to identify and address defects before a closing takes place. And they should allow adequate time to select loans, review them and communicate changes to production personnel.

According to Fannie Mae’s Selling Guide, lenders should target areas where a higher risk of fraud, mistakes or misrepresentation exist. These may include loans with complex income calculations (commonly involving self-employed borrowers or those who derive income from rental property); loans with multiple layers of credit risk (such as high LTV or DTI ratios); and loans secured by properties in areas that have high delinquency rates or are currently experiencing rapid changes in real estate values.

Strategic value

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have up to three years after buying a loan to request a repurchase, and each buyback can result in an average estimated loss of $100,000. Meeting agency requirements should help lenders avoid losses when they least expect them.

In today’s market, lenders are struggling to stay profitable and simply cannot afford this. Indeed, according to a survey from the Mortgage Bankers Association, IMBs and mortgage subsidiaries of chartered banks had an average pretax net loss of $1,015 on each loan originated in third-quarter 2023 alone.

The safeguards that quality control reviews incorporate are intended to keep such losses to a minimum. The process can be akin to roaming every thread of a spiderweb to find defects, but it’s worth it to take careful steps.

Quality control isn’t just about weeding out errors to protect lenders. It’s also a strategic process of turning data into insights. This will help the lender solidify its market position while maximizing its financial performance through improved revenues, profits, customer service and brand reputation.

Through targeted samples of loans prior to funding, for instance, operational leaders might discover that an originator has been steadily increasing their percentage of high-LTV loans. This could lead to a much-needed update of the company’s underwriting guidelines to manage balance-sheet risk and help prevent future losses.

The lender also might discover that newer loan officers are repeating the same mistakes, indicating a need for additional training or supervision. Linking the purpose of quality control to these broader outcomes is pivotal to a lender’s continued growth and vibrancy.

Best practices

How can lenders carry out quality control reviews to reap all the potential benefits? On the prefunding side, they should approach the task as an opportunity to map out the story of every loan. Knowing what they’ll need at the end, they should get the right data and documents in place, chapter by chapter, to align with their automated underwriting system’s guidelines and overlays.

Lenders should also be diligent about post-funding reviews since Fannie Mae has imposed additional guardrails there too. They must now complete a full post-closing review cycle within 90 days, rather than the 120 days they used to have. Again, this isn’t just an opportunity to detect errors; it’s another chance to identify any errant patterns that can be linked to specific roles, processes or people.

Finding the best ways to leverage these strategic opportunities can be challenging for IMBs. They may be struggling to decide whether to hire new people, reassign existing staff or outsource their quality control processes.

Two factors complicate the decision. First, as previously mentioned, is that the personnel who conduct the prefunding reviews must be independent of processing and underwriting decisions. This is designed to prevent any subjectivity that could lead someone to minimize or justify certain findings.

The second factor is that origination activity is not always steady, which is certainly true today. If a lender doesn’t have the financial ability to bring on new staff members — or the luxury to pay them accordingly during slower or busier times — they may want to take an “on-demand” approach and outsource the quality control review functions. Either way, when the mortgage market improves, the lenders that fully capitalize on the power of quality control will be in a better position to make the most of the upturn. ●

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The government-sponsored enterprise is encouraging lenders that work with housing finance agencies at the state, city and county levels to use the new documents to cut down on confusion regarding DPA programs.

“Saving for a downpayment continues to be the largest barrier to homeownership for lower-income and first-time homebuyers,” said Danny Gardner, single-family senior vice president of mission and community engagement at Freddie Mac. “We know that standardization has increased efficiency, lowered costs and improved many areas of the mortgage industry. By embracing standardization and creating a set of industrywide documents, we are providing clarity and consistency that will enable more lenders to help more individuals and families leverage downpayment assistance programs across the country.”

Freddie Mac noted that, historically, subordinate lien documents for DPA programs have varied significantly. Many are specific to housing finance agencies or use different, nonstandardized verbiage, which can lead to misunderstandings about loan terms and repayment plans. To make things simpler across the board, Freddie officials collaborated with Fannie Mae and several state housing finance agencies to make the new lien documents a reality.

State standardized lien documents are already on Freddie’s website for Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Mexico, South Dakota, Tennessee, Virginia and Washington. By the end of this year, documents will available for at least 19 states, with the rest of the states (plus the District of Columbia) to follow.

Freddie hopes that having more consistent documentation will bear fruit on the lender side as well as the consumer side, potentially leading to more lenders participating in DPA programs. Stockton Williams, executive director of the National Council of State Housing Agencies (NCSHA), praised the move as a positive step.

“This effort by Freddie Mac compliments NCSHA’s HFA1 Affordable Homeownership Lender Toolkit online resource, which enables home mortgage lenders to partner more efficiently with state housing finance agencies in providing mortgage loans and downpayment assistance to lower-income homebuyers,” he said.

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The government-sponsored enterprises, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, have triggered an increased number of buybacks this year as they process the loans sold during and after the pandemic-initiated purchase and refinance boom. The timing couldn’t be worse, with these extra expenses coming while lenders’ pockets are already thin. Too many repurchases can spell disaster, especially for smaller lenders. But this impact isn’t felt only at the corporate level — these buybacks impact individual originators too.

“When any lender puts credit restrictions onto their business model, it is the least represented borrower that first gets impacted.”

Taylor Stork, president, Community Home Lenders of America

If you’ve noticed increased calls from confused former clients, you’re not alone, says Taylor Stork, a longtime originator and president of the Community Home Lenders of America (CHLA). When a loan is repurchased, it changes hands at least once, if not twice, and usually changes servicers. This triggers a flood of “hello” and “goodbye” letters to the borrower, who is likely to call their mortgage originator for help figuring out where to send payments.

As the originator, you’re unlikely to know what’s going on and will have to dig for information. If you’re a broker, Stork says, it’s likely you won’t be able to get any information at all, since you’re not privy to the transaction and it’s protected by information security rules.

“(Clients) expect me to make sure that they are taken care of all the way through the process,” Stork says. “For originators, it creates a tremendous amount of confusion. It certainly tarnishes the relationship that we have with our customers and with our referral sources.”

There’s an impact on the originator even before the buyback happens, says Brendan McKay, president of advocacy for the Association of Independent Mortgage Experts (AIME). Before a buyback goes through, the loan is audited. This often means requests to the originator for additional documents from the borrower, sometimes months or years after closing.

The GSEs argue that these loans don’t meet their quality standards, with Freddie Mac citing miscalculated income and missing documents as the two leading causes of buybacks. But lenders and mortgage advocacy organizations argue that many are returned to the lender for minor issues on loans that are still performing well. “These are not bad loans,” Stork says. “These are good loans that may have little, tiny technical errors.”

Often, the repurchase request is not even due to error. “A lot of these, as we’ve gone through them, have been [due to] appraisals,” says Scott Olson, CHLA’s executive director. “People had two appraisals. They both are fine and (the GSEs) are claiming, ‘No, we disagree.’ … It’s just a difference in judgment.”

A lender being forced to take back a performing loan may not seem like a dangerous prospect, but lenders often aren’t equipped to hold loans on their balance sheets. This means they must resell the loan after the buyback, and most lenders turn to what McKay terms the “scratch and dent” market to do so. Loans sold this way incur massive losses for the lender. And this puts smaller lenders at higher risk of default since the losses on only a few buybacks can make a huge difference on their balance sheets. “Getting a loan bought back is absolute misery,” McKay says.

These costs averaged 8 basis points per loan in 2020 before rising to 68 bps in 2023, according to McKay. “That cost, if it continues, is getting passed along to the loan officer and the consumer,” he says. “All of us are going to have worse rates. That’s why originators should care about this.”

Stork says the natural response by lenders and originators is to tighten qualification standards in an attempt to bulletproof the loans and prevent them from being bought back. “When any lender puts credit restrictions onto their business model, it is the least represented borrower that first gets impacted,” he says. “Buybacks result in a tightening of the credit box.”

This past October, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) tweaked its buyback policy for loans subject to COVID-19 forbearance. It also reported that GSE repurchase requests have passed their peak, with buybacks now trending downward. But there’s still work to be done.

The CHLA has called for the ceasing of all pandemic-era repurchase requests that aren’t tied to fraud, if the borrower is current on their payments. AIME has called for refinement of the buyback policy, as well as increased transparency and consistency around its enforcement. The FHFA said in October that the GSEs must implement a “fair, consistent and predictable process.” The eventual goal is to create less ambiguity in underwriting, which should reduce buybacks in the long term.

Buybacks are important for originators to understand because they’re on the frontlines and are likely to deal with the fallout. These include a tighter credit box, loan audits and more document requests. In the most dire circumstances, lenders could lay off staff or fold.

“They need to understand their responsibility in helping to protect the industry, whether for everyone’s good or their own good,” McKay says. “This type of pain doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It’s going to get shared by everybody.” ●

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The conforming loan limit is the maximum dollar amount of a mortgage that Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac will guarantee. In accordance with the Housing and Economic Recovery Act, the limit is adjusted every year to reflect changes in the average price of a home in the U.S.

This adjustment is made on a per-county basis, with the limit in most counties receiving a bump equal to the average annual percentage increase of national home prices. In third-quarter 2023, this increase (seasonally adjusted) was 5.56%, according to the most recent FHFA House Price Index report.

Put another way, next year’s limit for most of the country is an increase of $40,350 from the $726,200 conforming loan limit in 2023. With home values steadily on the uptick this year due to the ongoing shortage of existing homes for sale, conforming loan limits will be higher in all but five U.S. counties or county equivalents.

In some counties, the cap will be even higher than the baseline limit. Applicable loan limits are higher in places designated by the FHFA as high-cost areas, or areas where 115% of the local median home value is greater than the baseline conforming loan limit. In these regions (which include the metro areas around New York City, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and parts of the San Francisco Bay Area, among others), next year’s ceiling for one-unit properties will be set at 150% of the baseline conforming loan limit: $1,149,825.

This figure also serves as the loan limit for Alaska, Hawaii, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands, each of which have loan limits established by special statutory provisions.

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David C. Benson, the current president of Fannie Mae, announced that he will retire in “early to mid-2024.” The longtime Fannie official has held several positions within the company’s executive structure, including chief financial officer, executive vice president of capital markets and treasurer. He also served as Fannie’s interim CEO from May through December 2022 following the retirement of Hugh Frater, holding down the position until the arrival of current CEO Priscilla Almodovar.

Almodovar will assume the additional title of president upon Benson’s departure and inherit direct oversight of Fannie’s two business units — single-family, led by executive vice president Malloy Evans, and multifamily, helmed by executive vice president Michele Evans.

Also announcing his attention to leave is Jeffery Hayward, the GSE’s chief administrative officer. Hayward has been with Fannie Mae for 36 years, a tenure that has also included leading Fannie’s multifamily unit as well as its national servicing organization.

Terry Theologides, who currently serves as general counsel for Fannie, will succeed Hayward as chief administrative officer. Danielle McCoy, a senior vice president, deputy general counsel and deputy corporate secretary, will assume Theologides’ position as general counsel following his promotion.

“I’m honored and I’m excited about the path forward,” Almodovar said. “Fannie Mae is well prepared for these transitions thanks to thoughtful succession planning and the strong leadership corps that Dave, Jeff and others have helped develop through the years.

“Dave’s and Jeff’s achievements have left a lasting imprint on our company and our industry, and we are grateful for their leadership and contributions. Our bench of leaders is deep, and I look forward to continuing to grow our talent and working with Terry and Danielle in their new roles.”

“We’re deeply grateful to both Dave and Jeff for their leadership and decades of service,” echoed Michael Heid, chair of Fannie Mae’s board of directors. “As they depart, we are implementing our succession plans and streamlining our leadership structure to continue advancing our strategy and our mission to serve homeowners, renters and the housing market as a whole. The board is very pleased that Priscilla will take on this greater role, drawing on her wide-ranging experience and proven commitment to our mission.”

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The caps, which have been set annually since 2015, are based on projections by the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) about the growth of multifamily originations next year. The FHFA has said that it anticipates that the combined $140 billion “will be appropriate given current market forecasts,” adding that it will still monitor the multifamily market and raise the caps if deemed necessary.

“We know the multifamily market faces significant headwinds, which makes Freddie Mac’s countercyclical role critically important to lenders and borrowers,” said Kevin Palmer, head of Multifamily for Freddie Mac. “We continue to maintain a laser focus on providing liquidity, stability and affordability to the market, and FHFA has again set strong requirements that create the conditions for us to deliver on our priorities.”

“A cap of $70 billion for each of the GSEs is reasonable, given the challenging market conditions and high interest rate environment expected in 2024,” said Bob Broeksmit, president and CEO of the Mortgage Bankers Association. “We appreciate FHFA’s ongoing flexibility should adjustments to the caps and mission-driven requirements be necessary and believe exempting loans supporting workforce housing from the cap levels will help to ensure GSE financing is a viable option for housing providers in the current environment.”

To keep the government-sponsored enterprises’ missions of affordable housing and serving underserved markets on track, the FHFA, as it has in previous years, will require that at least 50% of their multifamily business is mission-driven, affordable housing. Additionally, loans classified as supporting workforce housing properties will be exempt from the volume caps (all other mission-driven lending will remain subject to the limits).

“The 2024 multifamily loan caps, coupled with the exemption for workforce housing properties from the caps, will promote the Enterprises’ continued strong commitment to addressing the need for affordable rental housing,” said FHFA Director Sandra L. Thompson. “The workforce housing exemption should encourage conventional borrowers to commit to preserving rents at affordable levels for extended periods of time.”

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But mortgage professionals answered various needs in their communities. Mortgage companies and their employees raised money for and devoted time to veteran nonprofits, pediatric care and refugee programs, among many other worthwhile causes. At least two mortgage companies founded charities in the name of executives who have died.

In this article, read about some of the charitable efforts taken up by the people in the mortgage industry. Scotsman Guide plans to publish this feature online each quarter. If you or your company are holding an event or fundraiser, share the details at articles@scotsmanguide.com.

The MBA Opens Doors Foundation received $2,684,526 in corporate and individual donations this past September during its Annual Appeal fundraising campaign to kick off fiscal year 2024. The proceeds will support the foundation’s mission of helping vulnerable families with critically ill or injured children stay in their homes while their child is in treatment. The foundation, through its Home Grant Program, provides relief to these families with housing assistance grants of up to $2,000 per month.

During the three-day campaign, the foundation received pledges from 41 companies and 52 individuals. Six companies pledged $100,000 or more in support, led by CMG Financial, which pledged $200,000, and Pingora Asset Management, which pledged $150,000.

Additional companies pledging $100,000 or more were Arch MI, Citizens Bank, Freedom Mortgage, Lennar Mortgage, Radian Group Inc. and Pennymac. Four companies pledged $75,000, including AmeriHome, Intercontinental Exchange, Pulte Financial Services and Taylor Morrison Home Funding, while 25 companies pledged $25,000 or more. Personal pledges totaled $577,526 and exceeded last year’s personal commitments.

Mortgage lender Pennymac sponsored the second annual Stanford L. Kurland Memorial Golf Classic in partnership with the Sheila and Stanford L. Kurland Family Foundation. The two-day event this past July raised more than $2 million for brain cancer research that is conducted by the UCLA Neuro-Oncology Program. Stanford L. Kurland founded Pennymac in 2008. Under his leadership, it has become one of the largest residential mortgage lenders and servicers in the nation.

Kurland was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor in 2020 and received exceptional treatment and care at UCLA’s neuro-oncology facilities. Sheila Kurland, co-founder of the foundation, said she took comfort in knowing her husband’s legacy will help save lives due to UCLA and its doctors.

The Guild Giving Foundation, a nonprofit organization created by Guild Mortgage, hosted its fourth annual charity golf tournament, auction and dinner social in October 2022, raising a total of $380,000 for local charities. The proceeds from the 2022 event were awarded to local charities serving the San Diego community, including MyPath2Own Dedicated to Lisa Klika, the Urban Corps of San Diego County and Home Start.

MyPath2Own is a new charitable program that Guild launched in 2023 in honor of Lisa Klika, the company’s late chief compliance officer. It is designed to help potential borrowers become mortgage ready through homebuyer education, concierge service and closing cost assistance grants. Klika was a strong supporter of homeownership for communities in need. The charity will receive an initial check for $180,000 from the proceeds of the 2022 golf tournament. Guild Mortgage is headquartered in San Diego.

Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation recognized national real estate title and escrow company Title Alliance this past summer with a Top Fundraising Award. The recognition stems from the Pennsylvania-based company’s monthlong “TA Gives Back” campaign from 2022, when its team members, partners and clients raised nearly $9,600 for the charity, which supports patients and families affected by pediatric cancer. Many of the offices across the 12-state Title Alliance footprint held “Yellow Days” and participated in a lemon challenge to raise funds. For the Title Alliance Gives Back Lemon Challenge, participants were challenged to suck on a lemon for 30 seconds and/or make a campaign donation. The fundraising award is given by Alex’s Lemonade Stand to celebrate contributions of $5,000 or more.

Sun West Mortgage Co. was nominated for an award at the 2022 National Philanthropy Day for its outstanding effort, commitment and support for The Autism Community in Action. Sun West was nominated for the Outstanding Large Corporation or Business Award, which recognizes a business that has created a culture of philanthropy within its organization and has actively demonstrated its commitment to improving the community. For the past 10 years, the family-owned business has been dedicated to providing free education, support and hope to families living with autism. Through this effort, Sun West has provided life-changing resources to more than 50,000 families.

Real estate company Morguard gave back to communities across the U.S. with its North Pole Express initiative during the 2022 holiday season. Residents at Morguard properties collected books, bears, pajamas, blankets and essential hygiene items that were donated to international nonprofit Comfort Cases, an organization whose mission is to aid youth in foster care. The Canadian-based Morguard owns residential, retail, office, industrial and hotel properties, and it manages real estate and financial assets for institutional investors.

Freedom Alliance, U.S. Bank and True Homes partnered this past August to honor U.S. Army Pvt. Roy Garcia and his family with the gift of a mortgage-free home in Monroe, North Carolina. The newly built house was donated by U.S. Bank through its Housing Opportunities after Military Engagement program, in conjunction with Freedom Alliance’s Heroes to Homeowners program. Since 2013, U.S. Bank has donated 22 homes valued at $4.8 million to deserving military families in thriving communities across the country. Garcia enlisted in 2008 and was deployed to Kunar Province in Afghanistan in 2010. He and his unit participated in a joint operation with the Army Rangers and Afghan troops against the Taliban. The fighting was immediate and intense. Garcia’s unit lost their medic, and within 24 hours their numbers were reduced from 22 platoon members to nine due to injuries that required medical evacuation. During his deployment, Garcia also helped build a school for Afghan children, provided security for election day voting and established relations with village elders. Upon his return, he met his future wife, Allison, and they married in 2012.

The MBA Opens Doors Foundation announced this past July that it raised $234,536 at its annual Charity Wine Auction held during the Mortgage Bankers Association’s Chairman’s Conference in Manalapan, Florida. The funds raised will support the foundation’s mission of providing mortgage and rental-assistance grants to families with critically ill or injured children, allowing parents and guardians to be by a child’s side during treatment without fear of losing their home. The foundation has provided more than $22 million in mortgage and rental-payment assistance to nearly 15,000 families since its inception in 2011, making it a critical part of a family’s support structure while their child is ill. Grants of up to $2,000 are made monthly to families with a child in treatment at one of the foundation’s network of 13 children’s hospitals.

Freedom Mortgage and Radian Group Inc. extended their support this past August to the MBA Opens Doors Foundation, which has an alliance with Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Freedom Mortgage has committed an additional $600,000 over six years, and Radian has committed an additional $500,000 over five years. The foundation partners with the hospital’s social workers to identify families with critically ill or injured children in need of mortgage or rental-payment assistance as potential grant recipients. The first set of housing grants were made to the hospital in March 2020 and nearly $1 million in housing assistance to 660 families has been provided since then.

After a two-year hiatus during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Carrington Charitable Foundation held its 10th annual golf classic on Oct. 10, 2022, at The Resort at Pelican Hill in Newport Coast, California. The event raised more than $2 million for its initiatives that aid U.S. service members returning from post-9/11 battlefields. The foundation is the nonprofit arm of The Carrington Companies. More than 250 golfers participated, and the event culminated in a dinner and auction attended by more than 450 people. Since 2011, the charity golf tournament, together with its React 2020 and 2021 virtual events, has raised more $27 million for veterans and their families

Operation Homefront, a national nonprofit serving America’s military families, presented Cornerstone Awards in December 2022 to Ali Haralson, president of Auction.com, and Len McMorrow, senior vice president of default recovery and litigation at U.S. Bank. The awards are for individuals who have gone above and beyond to help Operation Homefront transform how it serves military families and delivers its mission. Haralson joined Auction.com in 2017, and her company has donated more than $850,000 in support of permanent and transitional housing programs. McMorrow has been with U.S. Bank for more than 10 years and has been a driving force in making a difference for military families. The nonprofit’s partnership with U.S. Bank began in 2019, and due to McMorrow’s leadership and vision, U.S. Bank has donated more than $1.3 million in cash and in-kind support to the nonprofit.

Lennar Mortgage raised more than $100,000 during its 10th Annual Derby, where company teams raised money in unique ways during the spring of 2023. The Miami-based mortgage company presented its gift to the MBA Opens Doors Foundation in May. Since 2019, the Lennar Mortgage Annual Derby has raised more than $300,000 for the foundation from 2,400 individual donations by Lennar Mortgage associates. Laura Escobar (president of Lennar Mortgage and the MBA’s 2023 vice chair) and her team bested their fundraising goals during the monthlong campaign, going from less than $12,000 in donations in 2019 to a whopping $100,000 this year.

Real estate executive and Legacy Partners chairman Preston Butcher, along with his wife Carolyn, donated $1.5 million in 2022 to the Urban Land Institute (ULI) Foundation to create the Homeless to Housed Initiative. As part of ULI’s Terwilliger Center for Housing, the initiative aims to identify and promote strategies that will enable communities to provide stable housing for those experiencing homelessness. The new program will build on the findings of ULI’s recent report on the issue, which Butcher co-authored and sponsored. Butcher intends for his gift to provide developers and policymakers with the tools they need to design and implement successful attainable housing programs — and ultimately reduce the number of people without shelter.

Scotsman Guide Inc. and its employees contributed several boxes of new toys to the Toys for Tots drive in December 2022. Toys for Tots is a program run by the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve. The mission of the program is to collect new, unwrapped toys and distribute them to less fortunate children at Christmas. In 1991, the Toys for Tots Foundation was created at the behest of the Marine Corps. Scotsman Guide plans to hold another toy drive this year.

Houston-based InterLinc Mortgage partnered in December 2022 with Feeding America for its first companywide fundraiser, with a goal of donating $15,000 to food banks across the country. The fundraiser encompassed online giving and local food bank volunteer opportunities, as well as a grant from the InterLinc Family Foundation, a nonprofit that focuses on assisting other organizations that make spiritual and physical impacts in the community.

Through a network of 200 food banks and more than 60,000 food pantries and meal programs, Feeding America provides meals to 40 million people each year. In addition, the foundation also helped several other nonprofits last year, including a partnership with Theatre Under the Stars, which provides accessible and affordable arts education to individuals with disabilities. The InterLinc Family Foundation also gave a $10,000 check and 40 welcome kits to Houston Welcomes Refugees, a Houston-based organization focused on rehoming refugees to the U.S.

Excite Credit Union and Excite Foundation announced this past July that they’ve been selected by California’s ScholarShare Investment Board to launch education and awareness programs that promote multiple college and career savings strategies for low-income families in the San Jose area. Research shows that low-income children with as little as $500 in a savings account are three times more likely to enroll in college and four times more likely to graduate. The grants will fund programs to educate eligible low-income families about college savings programs.

Nonprofit Citadel Credit Union doubled its annual contribution last year to $300,000 for the Cancer Care Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Since 2019, the credit union has been the presenting sponsor of the Parkway Run & Walk fundraiser for the children’s hospital, raising a total of $750,000 to fund critical childhood cancer research and care. About $43,000 of Citadel’s contributions last year were raised by its Building Strength Together Team of 170 employees, which more than doubled what the team raised in 2021. The fundraiser was held Sept. 25, 2022, along the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, and it drew nearly 10,000 supporters, including more than 300 teams.

This past June, Silverton Mortgage celebrated the 10-year anniversary of its charitable organization, The Silverton Foundation, which supports families facing financial hardship due to medical crises. The foundation has provided a combined 150-plus years of mortgage and rental assistance to families with sick children who have been hospitalized, or who are receiving ongoing chronic or critical care treatments. Silverton Mortgage also announced in March 2023 its corporate sponsorship of the Kyle Pease Foundation, a nonprofit that provides opportunities for people with disabilities to participate in athletic events, enriching their lives and those who support them. The nonprofit provides scholarships, purchases medical or adaptive sports equipment, and participates in educational programs to create awareness of cerebral palsy and other disabilities.

Telephone Doctor and ServiceSkills gave an undisclosed donation to the Fisher House Foundation, which builds homes where military members, veterans and their families stay for free while loved ones are in the hospital. These homes are located at military and U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs medical centers around the world. Since its inception more than 30 years ago, more than 455,000 families have been served. Telephone Doctor and ServiceSkills are customer service training series companies based in St. Louis that work with mortgage companies and other businesses. ●

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Loans eligible for repurchase relief three years after origination now won’t lose that eligibility due to a COVID-related forbearance. Essentially, missed payments during a COVID-related forbearance won’t make a loan automatically lose its representation and warranty relief.

The shift was announced by Sandra L. Thompson, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), at the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Annual Convention and Expo in Philadelphia. Repurchases of loans sold to the government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) have been a hot-button topic of late, as repurchase rates have been climbing and lenders have been forced to reabsorb costs when the GSEs find underwriting defects after taking on the loan. For many lenders — especially small, independent companies — the extra expense can be brutal, and it has led many to join a growing chorus this year for repurchase policy changes.

Thompson addressed the escalation in repurchase concerns in a speech at MBA Annual. She acceded that there has been a recent increase in the number of repurchase requests, although that’s to be expected given multiple years of record-high loan volume during and after the pandemic. The good news, she said, is that repurchase requests from Fannie and Freddie have actually declined since peaking in early 2022.

“We know that a key factor contributing to the severity of this issue is today’s higher interest rate environment, in which the losses associated with repurchasing low interest rate loans can be quite steep,” Thompson said. “We have also heard the industry’s concerns regarding loan defects that may not rise to the materiality necessary to justify a repurchase. … We also know that there continue to be concerns regarding the rep and warrant treatment of loans where the borrower obtained a COVID-19 forbearance plan.”

Thompson praised the agility of the industry in adopting an increased focus on loss mitigation to keep Americans in their homes during the depths of the pandemic. She lauded the servicers “at the center of these efforts, offering relief and long-term solutions at the direction of policymakers.”

Scott Olson, executive director of the Community Home Lenders of America (CHLA), applauded the move. Olson, who has been vocal for months about the need for GSE repurchase reform, pressed the FHFA for a change in repurchase policy in May.

“CHLA commends FHFA Director Thompson for her comments today about FHFA’s focus on the need for balanced Fannie/Freddie repurchase policies — and for extending rep and warrant policies for COVID forbearance loans,” Olson said. “More balance in repurchase demands is needed to reduce disincentives for lenders to originate mortgage loans to underserved borrowers. 

“It is also necessary to avoid steep and unnecessary losses lenders are experiencing from selling off performing loans in a market with skyrocketing mortgage rates.”

MBA president and CEO Bob Broeksmit also commended the FHFA for taking action.

“MBA has advocated strongly for FHFA to address the GSEs’ increased incidence of loan repurchase requests — especially for performing loans and those with relatively minor issues underwritten during the pandemic,” he said.

“We share FHFA and the GSEs’ goal of high-quality underwriting and will continue to work with them to ensure the rep and warranty framework is being applied in a balanced way, and that there are appropriate alternatives that lead to outcomes short of a repurchase request. FHFA’s policy change to provide rep and warrant relief for performing seasoned loans that have successfully exited COVID-19 forbearance plans is a longstanding recommendation that we are pleased to see implemented.”

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