They join various industry groups in urging the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) to withdraw the new policy.
Waters (D-Calif.) and Clay (D-Mo.) issued the following statement after Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac announced that refinance mortgage loans sold to them after Sept. 1 will include a new adverse-market refinance fee of 0.5 percent.
“Last weekend, Trump addressed the nation and pretended to understand the struggles of suffering families and took four executive actions that do nothing to provide them with meaningful relief. Now, as further proof that those executive actions were merely for show, and likely as part of (FHFA) Director (Mark) Calabria’s inappropriate focus on taking steps to release the enterprises from conservatorship during a national emergency, the FHFA approved a new policy that will make refinancing more expensive for homeowners,” Waters said.
“In recent months, many homeowners have opted to refinance their mortgages to take advantage of historically low interest rates and lower their monthly payments. Imposing thousands of dollars in additional costs on borrowers at a time when the administration is supposed to be working on methods to help families stay in their homes is just another example of tone-deaf policies put in place by Trump Administration officials who could care less about helping the American people weather this pandemic. I am urging the FHFA to reverse course immediately and allow homeowners a fighting chance.”
Clay also questioned the timing of introducing such a fee in a pandemic.
“Under dark of night, the agency has, under the guise of a loan-level price adjustment, once again ignored conventional wisdom and added a new penalty that will prevent Americans from taking advantage of lower interest rates,” he said. “This stealth policy-making deprives consumer groups and industry the opportunity to provide insight and feedback and also serves to further destabilize the fragile finances of many low-income and minority homeowners seeking to work their way over the bridge that is the racial wealth gap.”
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