Logan Mohtashami pushes back on the true state of mortgage credit

Today’s Daily Download episode features an interview with HousingWire Lead Analyst Logan Mohtashami. In this episode, Mohtashami discusses his recent article as well as his thoughts on the Mortgage Bankers Association’s report on mortgage credit.

During the interview, he shares his thoughts on the role mortgage credit plays in the larger story on COVID-19’s impact on the housing market.

Mohtashami’s article is part of our HW+ premium membership community. When you go to sign up, use the code “hwpluspodcast100” to get $100 off your annual membership.

For some background on the story, here’s a summary of the article: 

It is true that the COVID-19 crisis did temporarily wreak havoc on the mortgage market. Case in point — the week of March 9 and the mortgage market meltdown. You may recall the precipitous drop in rates which resulted in a flood of refinance requests which amplified early pay off risk, mortgage margin calls, and the rapid rebounding of rates.

Needless to say, all that drama from COVID-19 created significant stress in the mortgage market. As a result, many non-QM lenders left the market and FHA homebuyers with low FICO scores saw credit get tighter. The U.S. jumbo market loans saw some difficulty as well. Some lenders even stopped offering home equity lines.

While that all sounds pretty drastic and scary, at the end of the day this prevented only about 4.5%-6.2% of all purchase loans from closing of those that would have closed prior to the meltdown. This means that approximately over 93% of the purchase loans that could have closed during the period of the record-breaking expansion still closed during the early part of the COVID crisis. This is because after 2010, the loan profiles of mortgage seekers before and during the COVID crisis have been, in a word, excellent– the best loan profiles that I have ever seen in my 24 years of lending experience.

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.

HousingWire articles covered in this episode:

• Is mortgage credit really too tight since COVID-19?
• It hasn’t been this hard to get a mortgage in six years