Bankrate’s Greg McBride on FHFA’s adverse-market refinance fee

Today’s Daily Download episode features an interview with Greg McBride, senior vice president and chief financial analyst at Bankrate.com. In this episode, McBride speaks with HousingWire about the recent postponement of the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s adverse-market refinance fee.

Following the announcement of the fee’s postponement earlier this week, McBride sent a comment to the HousingWire newsroom, stating:

“The Federal Housing Finance Agency has decided to postpone implementation of the much-criticized Adverse Market Refinance Fee until December 1, and exempted refinances for loan amounts under $125,000,” McBride said. “While not as good as repealing it altogether, this is certainly better than the caper they pulled when they initially announced it without any advance notice.”

During the podcast interview, McBride delves into why he believes the fee should be repealed as well as whether or not he thinks implementing the new loan-level price adjustment will benefit homebuyers and lenders.

According to McBride, the fee may discourage homebuyers from refinancing as it has the potential to add more than $1,000 to their closing costs.

“This is not an ancillary charge that nobody’s going to notice, it’s half a percentage point of the loan amount that’s being refinanced,” he said. “While it may make great financial sense for consumers to refinance, they tend to balk for two reasons. One is that there are so many fees involved, and the second is the cumbersome process.”

“While I don’t know if the process will be altered from a fee standpoint, it’s sometimes a tough sell to consumers as people are often reluctant to incur upfront costs,” he said. “So,  when you add another layer on top of that, my concern is that it will only further deter people from refinancing when they could otherwise benefit from doing so.”

The Daily Download examines the most compelling articles reported by the HousingWire newsroom team. 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

HousingWire articles covered in this episode:

• New fee on mortgage refinances could cost homeowners $1,400
• MBA President “stunned” by the FHFA’s new mortgage refinance fee
• Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac CEOs address industry on refinance fee grievances
• FHFA delays refinance fee start date to Dec. 1