Orla McCaffrey
speaker
593 appearances
13 recordings
1 series
first heard Mar 2020
last heard Jun 2022
Orla McCaffrey’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
Trend
recordings per month · last 12 monthsNo recordings in the last 12 months.Older appearances are listed below; set an alert to hear about the next one.
Appearances
WSJ Your Money Briefing · In a Strong Mortgage Market, Millions Can't Get Housing Loans · 2 Apr 2021
podcast
So we're seeing the impact of the tighter credit standards appear at both ends of the mortgage market.
matched
On the FHA side, which are typically smaller loans, typically smaller down payments, the average credit score of someone who is approved for one of these loans rose slightly, but noticeably in 2020, which means that lenders have been tightening credit scores.
matched
And there are some people who would have qualified for an FHA loan pre-pandemic who didn't in 2020.
matched
Some other evidence that credit standards are tightening is the requirements for jumbo loans, which are the largest kind of mortgages you can get, have also tightened.
matched
So you need higher credit scores for those.
matched
And some lenders are requiring that you have a certain amount of money in the bank in order to refinance those loans.
matched
So for that to happen, things just need to come back down to earth in the housing market.
matched
We're really at extremes now with prices, with low inventory, just with the cutthroat competition that's out there to get almost every kind of home.
matched
Once demand for houses decreases for purchase loans and also refinances, once that happens, then lenders will have fewer applications to choose from.
matched
So they might be willing to kind of broaden the credit box a little more and choose people with those moderately good credit scores, but not stellar credit scores.
matched
Absolutely.
matched
Lending standards are strict right now because of a lot of the policies that were implemented through Dodd-Frank and other legislation after the financial crisis.
matched
And that's really important to protecting from the massive defaults that we saw during the housing crisis.
matched
But it's a thin line to walk because you want to make loans that are safe, but you also don't want to restrict credit so much that people who really could make mortgage payments and could be homeowners are just kind of edged out.
matched
About 40% of all home sales are made between March and June, so it's really a crucial season.
matched
So they have risen to about 2.81%, which is their highest level since November.
matched
That level is still very low historically.
matched
It still makes a lot of sense to buy a home or to refinance right now, but it is a considerable uptick from the lows we saw last year.
matched
It has put a bit of damper on mortgage applications, both for home purchases and for refinances over the past couple of weeks.
matched
Last week, they were down about 11%, which makes sense because when people see rates rise after such a period of like really rock bottom rates, it kind of makes them step back and say, you know, okay, should I wait and watch and see if it goes down again, if I can get a better deal or, you know, maybe I'll just put off my refi in the short term.
matched
Showing 321–340 of 593 · page 17 of 30
← Previous
Next →