How will the 2020 election impact the housing market?

In today’s Daily Download episode HW+ Managing Editor Brena Nath is joined by HousingWire Editor in Chief Sarah Wheeler to discuss the most compelling articles reported from the HousingWire newsroom. In today’s Daily Download episode, Brena and Sarah discuss Dave Stevens' recent in-depth article that covers the adverse market refinance fee.

For more background on what is discussed, here is a preview of today’s interview:

Q: In your opinion, what's one piece of news that you think people need to be paying attention to?

Sarah Wheeler: We just published a piece from Dave Stevens, who is of course the former CEO of the MBA but also the former senior vice president of single family at Freddie Mac, executive vice president at Wells Fargo, and assistant secretary of housing and FHA Commissioner, so a guy who kind of knows what he's talking about. We asked him last week, [to] look at the adverse market fee, given the third quarter earnings of Fannie and Freddie, which came out last week.

We really wanted to get his thoughts because there's been a lot of questions on the adverse market fees on refis. It's 50 basis points for the average homeowner right now in the middle of a pandemic. So we asked him to give us his opinion on whether that's really needed. The GSEs had different reasons for doing that and said it was because of risk. They also said it was because of all the work that they're doing with refis and origination.

Dave Stevens gave an amazing take on that today that I'd not miss out on reading. I think anyone in the industry would be really interested to see what he says, and he really feels like it has absolutely nothing to do with risk. And given their third quarter earnings, it's really a travesty to put that on homeowners right now. It also affects our industry. But really, it's the bottom line for homeowners who are trying to refi to get into a better economic spot.

The Daily Download examines the most compelling articles reported from the HousingWire newsroom. Each afternoon, we provide our listeners with a deeper look into the stories coming across our newsroom that are helping Move Markets Forward. Hosted by the HW team and produced by Alcynna Lloyd and Victoria Wickham.

Q: It's a big week this week. What can we expect to come out of the newsroom today, tomorrow and the rest of the week?

Sarah Wheeler: We obviously have the election this week, which is the biggest thing. So, we're going to be interviewing different industry experts on the results. Whether it's the mortgage industry or talking to people in the real estate industry, we want to talk about it. Some top housing issues are really hanging in the balance, like Fannie and Freddie exiting conservatorship, what happens to the FHFA director, what happens to the CFPB. Be sure to tune in starting really late Tuesday night and into Wednesday.

We'll definitely be keeping you up to date, especially on the things how the 2020 election impacts housing. While there's tons of election coverage out there, our goal is really to give you the news nowhere else. And if you're in our industry, who else is going to be covering the specifics of how this impacts your business? So that's really our goal.

HousingWire articles covered in this episode: