Bank of America has unveiled a $5 billion affordable homeownership program for low- to moderate-income and multicultural homebuyers and communities across the country.

The Bank of America Neighborhood Solutions program will help more than 20,000 borrowers and is planned for five years.

It encompasses a new down payment and closing-cost assistance option, innovative low- down-payment mortgages, grants that can be applied to non-recurring closing costs, and a national network of dedicated lending professionals. In addition, it features easy-to-understand financial education tools, strategic partnerships with real-estate professionals. Last, a national network of affordable housing nonprofit partners who provide in-depth homebuyer education and counseling.

“Today, our commitment to affordable and responsible homeownership is greater than ever, with half of our loans going to low- to moderate-income or multicultural families and communities,” said Steve Boland, head of consumer lending at Bank of America. “We know many of our clients want the power to own their first home, which can sometimes be challenging. One of the ways we’re helping is through our suite of affordable homeownership solutions and professional resources, which aid them in overcoming barriers and put sustainable homeownership within reach.”

Bank of America offers several solutions that are designed to bring this initiative to fruition:

• A new down payment and closing-cost program, launching in the second quarter of 2019, which will help customers overcome the biggest barriers to homeownership. Eligible borrowers will receive up to $10,000 to be used toward their down payment or closing costs when they get a Home Possible mortgage.
• America’s Home Grant program was expanded and now offers a lender credit of up to $7,500 that can be used toward non-recurring closing costs, like title insurance and recording fees, or to permanently buy down the interest rate. The funds, which do not require repayment, are available in 39 markets today and will soon be nationwide.
• Affordable Loan Solution mortgage is a fixed-rate loan for low- and moderate-income borrowers that offers a competitive rate with a down payment as low as 3 percent and no mortgage insurance. Today, 90 percent of these loans are made to first-time homebuyers.
• Freddie Mac Home Possible mortgage—this is a fixed-rate loan with a down payment as low as 3 percent and lower-cost mortgage insurance.

Arch Mortgage Insurance Company has updated their premium pricing tool, RateStar, to provide express quotes and customized pricing options through a portal. RateStar was launched 10-years ago as a tool that could evaluate individual loan risk with more precision than any rate sheet.

RateStar offers a mortgage insurance buydown feature, and its buydown feature allows loan officers to customize a  mortgage insurance premium payment for each borrower. The portal is available on through most loan origination systems and pricing engines, as well as through Arch MI’s origination platform, CONNECT, and its downloadable mobile app.

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“RateStar continues to evolve as we apply our decade of expertise and customer feedback,” said Michael Schmeiser, Arch MI’s President and CEO. “RateStar offers an express rate quote option that returns rate quotes faster and requires far fewer fields. Users have a full range of MI pricing options to choose from. RateStar provides a streamlined, uncluttered customer experience with design enhancements based on lender preferences.”

Calyx Enhances Technology

Calyx Software has enhanced Zip, a point-of-sale platform, to provide larger organizations with greater control and transparency over individual user profiles.

With this update, banks, credit unions, and non-bank lenders can designate a chief administrator, who has complete control to oversee, manage and standardize all of the company’s individual user accounts with ease. He can standardize the content on each of their Zip user websites to ensure consistency and compliance with company policies. In addition, the administrator can oversee activity and billing from all users, generate a single billing report, and set up ACH payment.

Mortgage applications increased 18.6 percent from one week earlier, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending March 29, 2019.

The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, increased 18.6 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index increased 18 percent compared with the previous week. The Refinance Index increased 39 percent from the previous week and was at its highest level since January 2016.

The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased 3 percent from one week earlier. The unadjusted Purchase Index increased 4 percent compared with the previous week and was 10 percent higher than the same week one year ago.

“There was a tremendous surge in overall applications activity, as mortgage rates fell for the fourth week in a row—with rates for some loan types reaching their lowest levels since January 2018. Refinance borrowers with larger loan balances continue to benefit, as we saw another sizeable increase in the average refinance loan size to $438,900—a new survey record,” said Joel Kan, MBA’s associate vice president of economic and industry forecasting. “We had expected factors such as the ongoing strong job market and favorable demographics to help lift purchase activity this year, and the further decline in rates is providing another tailwind. Purchase applications were almost 10 percent higher than a year ago.”

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"The average loan size for purchase loans declined slightly, as applications for smaller purchase loan sizes exceeded that of higher loan sizes—a positive sign that first-time buyers were increasingly active in the market, ” said Kan.

The refinance share of mortgage activity increased to 47.4 percent of applications from 40.4 percent the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage share of activity increased to 9.5 percent of applications.

The FHA share of applications decreased to 8.8 percent from 9.3 percent the week prior. The Veterans Affairs share of applications remained unchanged from 10.4 percent the week prior. The Department of Agriculture share of total applications remained unchanged from 0.6 percent the week prior.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances, $484,350 or less, decreased to 4.36 percent from 4.45 percent; and points increased to 0.44 from 0.39, including the origination fee, for 80 percent loan-to-value ratio loans.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with jumbo loan balances, greater than $484,350, decreased to 4.21 percent from 4.35 percent; and points decreased to 0.25 from 0.27, including the origination fee, for 80 percent loan-to-value loans. The effective rate decreased from last week.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages backed by the Federal Housing Administration decreased to 4.41 percent from 4.48 percent; and points remained unchanged at 0.48, including the origination fee, for 80 percent loan-to-value loans. The effective rate decreased from last week.

The average contract interest rate for 15-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 3.78 percent from 3.87 percent; and points decreased to 0.40 from 0.47, including the origination fee, for 80 percent loan-to-value loans. The effective rate decreased from last week.

The average contract interest rate for 5/1 ARMs remained unchanged at 3.77 percent; and points increased to 0.38 from 0.30, including the origination fee, for 80 percent loan-to-value loans. The effective rate increased from last week.

The survey covers over 75 percent of all U.S. retail residential mortgage applications and has been conducted weekly since 1990.