A&B ABstract: Mortgage assumptions – where a buyer assumes the existing mortgage loan of a seller – have fluctuated in popularity since the 1980s. However, inflation and the high interest rate environment, coupled with an observable shift to a buyer’s market, are raising the prospect that assumable mortgages – especially those with historically low interest […]
Ability to Repay/Qualified Mortgage
The QM Patch Is Down for the Count
Whether they realize it or not, absent a last-minute intervention from the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), effective July 1, 2021, creditors will no longer be able to originate qualified mortgage loans using the “QM Patch.” The reason for this dramatic event is that on April 8, 2021, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac announced in separate […]
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Sunset the QM Patch
The qualified mortgage (QM) rules have become a world of contradictions. In a client advisory, our Financial Services & Products Group investigates how the residential mortgage markets can thread the needle between new rulings from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and recent rulings from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
CFPB Delays Implementation of General “QM” Rule, May Jettison the “Seasoned QM” Rule
A&B ABstract In a statement issued on February 23, 2021, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) indicated that it intends to delay the General Qualified Mortgage (“QM”) rule’s mandatory July 1 2021 compliance date, and may amend or revoke the “Seasoned QM Rule” that was supposed to become effective on March 1, 2021. Background As […]
CFPB Issues “Seasoned Qualified Mortgage” Rule
A&B ABstract: On December 10, 2020, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued an innovative final rulemaking that creates a pathway to “safe harbor” Qualified Mortgage (QM) status for performing non-QM and “rebuttable presumption” QM loans that meet certain performance criteria portfolio requirements over a seasoning period of at least 36 months and that […]