Companies
Gate House Chairman Brian Montgomery and CEO Keith Becker recently opined in the M Report on the favorable condition of the FHA Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund.
In their article, Montgomery and Becker argue that FHA must be prepared to weather adverse events in the future similar to the wake of the Financial Crisis in 2008 or the COVID-19 pandemic. As pressure mounts to reduce mortgage insurance premiums (MIP), continued commitment to FHA’s countercyclical role would dictate caution. FHA must work, they wrote, “to put itself in a position to best serve low- to moderate-income borrowers who will be most affected should private markets constrict (which history has shown sometimes do).”
In urging caution on mortgage insurance premiums, they cite the Annual Report’s acknowledgment that the assumptions underlying the financial position of the fund can “change materially and quickly with changes in both actual and projected home values.”
Montgomery and Becker caution that unintended effects of MIP changes could occur, and FHA would be wise to keep available “all options that help to expand opportunities for low- to moderate-income homebuyers by deploying some of the excess capital into new programs, products, or underwriting policies.”