The Washington Report

In This Issue

Credit and Mortgage Scoring
NAR and Partners Urge FHFA be More Flexible on Credit Scorre Implementation

Government-Sponsored Enterprises
NAR and Partners Urge Public Process for Condo Guidance Review

Health Insurance Reform
House Passes Association Health Plan Bill

Credit and Mortgage Scoring

NAR and Partners Urge FHFA be More Flexible on Credit Scorre Implementation

NAR and a coalition of housing and finance trade associations sent a letter to the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) regarding the FHFA's plan to operationalize new credit scores at the GSEs. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac currently only use a version of FICO that was developed in the 1990s. The new credit scores include FICO 10T and Vantage score 3.

The FHFA has released a timeline with vague goals to address and few details. Various groups have indicated that the implementation will take more time as issues continue to arise.

NAR is focused on ensuring the changes happen and that they occur in a safe and sound manner, but has not opined on the mechanics of how the programs are implemented. 

The letter requests:

• A longer, more flexible timeline,
• More engagement between stakeholders and the GSEs/FHFA on problems as they arise, and
• Sharing data on credit score histories to help lenders, servicers, and investors build their understanding of loss probabilities.

Ken Fears, kfears@nar.realtor, 202-383-1066
Matt Emery, MEmery@nar.realtor, 202-383-1212

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Government-Sponsored Enterprises

NAR and Partners Urge Public Process for Condo Guidance Review

NAR joined the Community Association Institute (CAI) and Community Mortgage Lenders of America (CMLA) in writing to the FHFA regarding its temporary guidance on condominium purchase requirements. Those requirements have been in place since the beginning of 2022 and were a response to the collapse of a building in Florida that killed more than 90 residents. That building did not have appropriate engineering or safety reports and had insufficient reserves to pay for required repairs.

NAR, CAI, and CMLA have been part of a group of trade associations working with the FHFA, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac to review their temporary guidance. However, this project is under a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) and details are not public. The coalition believes that once final, any revised guidance should go through a public input process, just like any other major rule produced by a government agency before implementation.

Ken Fears, kfears@nar.realtor, 202-383-1066
Matt Emery, MEmery@nar.realtor, 202-383-1212

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Health Insurance Reform

House Passes Association Health Plan Bill

On June 21, 2023, the U.S. House of Representatives passed by a party-line vote of 220-209, H.R. 3799, the CHOICE Arrangement Act. The bill includes the NAR-supported Association Health Plans Act, which would expand access to association health plans (AHPs) to more Americans, including the self-employed workers of the real estate industry. According to the Congressional Budget Office, upon implementation, these provisions could increase the number of people with health insurance purchased through association plans by an average of 200,000 per year. NAR sent a letter of support for the AHP Act and will continue to advocate on behalf of members as this legislation now moves to the Senate for consideration.

Read the letter.

Christie DeSanctis, CDeSanctis@nar.realtor, 202-383-1102
Austin Perez, aperez@nar.realtor, 202-383-1046

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