Freddie Mac has enhanced the Greenchoice Mortgages energy-efficient offerings, with broader financing options to help families with lower-incomes reduce utility costs through energy-saving home repairs and improvements.

“Older homes tend to be more energy inefficient, which may raise the cost of homeownership and may make them more difficult to maintain,” said Mike Dawson, vice president of single-family affordable lending strategy and policy at Freddie Mac. “Greenchoice Mortgages is part of a multiyear initiative to facilitate energy-saving improvements that could help families better sustain homeownership. Freddie Mac is committed to making mortgage lenders and real estate agents aware of these products and the value they bring to the housing market.”

A U.S. family spends a minimum of $2,200 each year on energy bills pdf—with nearly half of those expenses used for heating and cooling, according to the Department of Energy. However, utility expenses are not factored into traditional mortgage underwriting methods, meaning that the value of energy efficiency has been overlooked in first lien financing.

Greenchoice Mortgages will enable Freddie Mac to better assess mortgage loan performance between homes with energy-efficient enhancements and those without. Additional research by Freddie Mac will help develop and design valuation guidance and uniform data collection mechanisms, as well as underwriting guidelines to account for energy-efficient features.

Freddie Mac has built strategic alliances with organizations, such as the Rocky Mountain Institute, RESNET, the Institute for Market Transformation and the Department of Energy to increase understanding of energy-efficient features as well as to provide lenders, real estate professionals and borrowers with tools and education. This offering is the latest example of Freddie Mac’s ongoing initiative to address the demands of a fast-changing mortgage landscape, through education, innovation and efficiency, saving the borrowers of the future--and the lenders who serve them--time and money.

“With a deeper understanding of the value of energy efficiency, as well as an increased awareness of Freddie Mac’s solutions and underwriting requirements, lenders will have more opportunities to expand their green product offerings in the marketplace,” said Robert Sahadi, senior advisor to the Rocky Mountain Institute.

The initiative is part of Freddie Mac’s Duty to Serve plan, which focuses on supporting underserved markets by financing more rural and manufactured housing and preserving more affordable housing for homebuyers and renters nationwide. The plan includes increased loan purchases in these underserved markets as well as new products, ground-breaking research and expanded consumer education. The company is working with the mortgage industry, community nonprofits, all levels of government and other dedicated organizations to make a positive difference for households with very low to moderate incomes.

Home sale prices increased 4.5 percent to a median of $297, 200 in October.

That performance is unusual. Home prices have declined from September to October, having fallen by an average of 1 percent between the two months over the previous eight years, according to Redfin. In October 2018, however, prices increased nationally 2.4 percent month over month.

Despite this national increase, just 32 of the 71 largest metro areas the survey monitors realized home price increases from September to October, which suggests that the monthly gain is due to the share of homes selling last month shifting slightly to more expensive areas than individual homes increasing in value.

However, evidence that the market is cooling down can be seen in price drops. In October, 31.3 percent of homes for sale had at least one price drop of more than 1 percent. This is the highest share of price drops on record since Redfin began tracking this metric in 2010, and 6.3 percentage points above last October's level of 25 percent. In Seattle, almost half of homes for sale had price drops, with an average price cut of $27,500, down from more than $30,000 a year earlier.

The number of homes for sale was up 1.3 percent from a year earlier, the highest level of inventory growth since September 2015. National inventory growth continues to be driven by big increases in softening coastal markets like San Jose (110.9%), Seattle (73.2%), San Diego (38.2%), and Boston (17.3%).

The number of homes newly listed in October rose 5.4 percent year over year, but the number of completed home sales continued to sink, dropping 5.7 percent from 2017. Home sales declined in 59 of the 71 largest metro areas that Redfin tracks.

Metro areas like Seattle, San Diego and San Jose, where high home prices mean that rising mortgage rates have the largest effect on affordability, are seeing the biggest increases in inventory coupled with decreasing sales. The biggest sales declines were in some of the most expensive metros, including Seattle (-19.6%), San Diego (-15.7%), and Honolulu(-22.9%).

"An increase in interest rates effectively makes home-buying more expensive because buyers have to pay higher monthly mortgage payments even if the sticker price hasn't changed," said Redfin chief economist Daryl Fairweather. "Some homebuyers are adjusting their price range down, and others are backing out of home-buying entirely, deciding that renting is a better deal. Sellers are now realizing buyer demand isn't what it used to be and are dropping their prices. When buyers and sellers are on the same page, the market moves quickly, but since sellers were slow to react, we've seen a slowdown in the housing market."

Across Redfin metros, the typical home that sold in October went under contract in a median of 43 days, two days faster than last year. This October, 20.3 percent of homes sold above the list price, down from 22.9 percent last October. The share of homes that went under contract within two weeks also fell, from 23.6 percent last October to 21.3 percent this October.

First Bank had deployed the servicing and risk platforms from Black Knight.

The bank implemented MSP, which supports first mortgages as well as home equity loans and lines of credit. First Bank is now using this comprehensive, unified platform to manage all of its mortgage servicing processes, including loan boarding, payment processing and default management.

“We’re looking forward to this system supporting First Bank’s strong commitment to compliance initiatives and customer support,” said Rob Chaney, president of loan operations for First Bank. “We believe the MSP system will provide our customers and employees with an exceptional servicing experience.”

Also, First Bank is using several servicing-focused analytic tools from Black Knight’s new Actionable Intelligence Platform. It’s engineered to help generate and protect revenue, improve efficiency and performance, and support vital compliance initiatives by putting the right information in front of the right people at the right time.

As a result, everyone--at every level of the enterprise--knows what their next step should be, based upon thorough and expert analysis of the data at hand. First Bank will use the Actionable platform to help monitor portfolios and receive real-time alerts on critical lien-related indicators, and provide insight into monthly prepayment and delinquency trends

“Our MSP system will elevate First Bank’s ability to enhance the customer experience with industry-leading capabilities and actionable analytics,” said Joe Nackashi, president of Black Knight. “[MSP offers] significant advantages to First Bank’s servicing operations and provide both the proven technology and insightful actions to drive greater operational excellence.”

FirstBank operates in Colorado, Arizona and California, and is the largest locally owned banking organization in Colorado, serving more than 750,000 customers.