{"id":5503,"date":"2023-05-17T21:47:17","date_gmt":"2023-05-17T21:47:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/realestateagentmagazine.com\/?p=5503"},"modified":"2023-05-17T21:47:17","modified_gmt":"2023-05-17T21:47:17","slug":"nar-president-testifies-about-new-mortgage-fees-before-congressional-panel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/realestateagentmagazine.com\/nar-president-testifies-about-new-mortgage-fees-before-congressional-panel","title":{"rendered":"NAR President Testifies About New Mortgage Fees Before Congressional Panel"},"content":{"rendered":"

P<\/em>arcell tells House Subcommittee fees are unnecessary, confusing, and hurt affordability.<\/em><\/p>\n

WASHINGTON, D.C.\u2014National Association of Realtors\u00ae President Kenny Parcell testified before the House Committee on Financial Services Subcommittee on Housing and Insurance today about the Federal Housing Finance Agency\u2019s (FHFA) new loan level pricing adjustments (LLPA) fee increase on borrowers with fair to good credit profiles.<\/p>\n

Parcell, a\u00a0Realtor\u00ae for 27\u00a0years\u00a0from Spanish Fork, Utah,\u00a0said\u00a0the fees were unnecessary and confusing, and potential homebuyers face a\u00a0lack of affordability and supply\u00a0in the current market\u00a0in pursuit of\u00a0the American Dream.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe average American homebuyer faces more barriers to achieving homeownership than ever before. Uncertainty in the U.S. economy, rising inflation, increasing mortgage rates, and lack of affordable inventory continue to devastate buyer confidence.\u00a0This year, U.S. home purchase mortgage applications dropped to a 28-year-low as rates jumped,\u201d\u00a0Parcell said.\u00a0\u201cFirst-time homebuyers historically made up around 40 percent of the market, but that has dropped to 26 percent,\u00a0the lowest on record,\u201d Parcell said. \u201cThe best way to build wealth is through real estate.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis fee increase on some borrowers is another hurdle to owning a home. But the biggest\u00a0impediment\u00a0remains\u00a0the lack of housing affordability and supply,\u201d Parcell testified.\u00a0\u201cWithout addressing this issue, housing will remain out of reach for many. Possible solutions\u00a0to supply include incentives to transfer commercial office buildings into residential units, mobilizing private funds to revitalize affordable homes, or incentivizing more owners to sell their homes by increasing the maximum\u00a0amount of capital gains a homeowner can exclude on the sale of a principal residence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Parcell\u00a0praised a recent announcement\u00a0by FHFA\u00a0rescinding\u00a0a proposed LLPA fee based on a borrower\u2019s debt-to-income ratio. The proposed LLPA fee, which would have taken effect Aug. 1, stood to\u00a0impact\u00a0borrowers with debt-to-income (DTI) ratios greater than 40%. The FHFA also issued a Request for Information (RFI)\u00a0on the\u00a0LLPA increase on borrowers with\u00a0better\u00a0credit.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a huge victory for\u00a0consumers\u00a0as we opposed the DTI fee and believe public comment and further research from the industry, analysts, and concerned consumers will help the FHFA reconsider\u00a0the pricing changes in hopes of lowering fees on all borrowers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Along with NAR, representatives from the Housing Policy Council (HPC),\u00a0the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland, and the Urban Institute\u2019s Housing Finance Policy Center Urban Institute were present for the hearing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Parcell tells House Subcommittee fees are unnecessary, confusing, and hurt affordability. WASHINGTON, D.C.\u2014National Association of Realtors\u00ae President Kenny Parcell testified before the House Committee on Financial Services Subcommittee on Housing and Insurance today about the Federal Housing Finance Agency\u2019s (FHFA) new loan level pricing adjustments (LLPA) fee increase on borrowers with fair to good credit […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":5504,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-real-estate-news"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/realestateagentmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/realestateagentmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/realestateagentmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realestateagentmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/45"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realestateagentmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5503"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/realestateagentmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5503\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5506,"href":"https:\/\/realestateagentmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5503\/revisions\/5506"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realestateagentmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/realestateagentmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realestateagentmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realestateagentmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}