Fannie Mae Valuation Acceptance + Property Data activates 40% of lenders in 2023

The Fannie Mae Valuation Acceptance + Property Data (VA+PD) program finished 2023 with 371 lenders activated. They purchased 12,547 loans with this program representing 52.8% of the 23,751 GSE loans originated with inspection-based waivers.

For January 2024, GSE issuance totaled $40.1BN, down 10.7% on the prior month. For property valuations, $35.3BN (88.1%) closed using appraisals, down 10.0%, and $4.15BN (10.4%) closed utilizing appraisal waivers, down 16.8% on the prior month. Lenders closed $628MM (1.57%) with inspection-based waivers, down 12.0% on December 2023.

Overall, inspection-based waivers comprised 13.1% of the combined appraisal waiver (non-appraisal) solutions by loan amount, the highest since inspection-based waiver solutions became available in the GSE selling guides. By number of loans delivered, inspection-based waivers remain above 15.9% of all waiver solutions, up from 3.9% in January 2023.

Utilization of Fannie Mae Valuation Acceptance

Fannie Mae Valuation Acceptance + Property Data market share of inspection-based waivers increased slightly to 41.2%, on 5.3% lower volume over the prior month. There are now 371 lenders who have delivered loans through Fannie Mae Valuation Acceptance + Property Data, including 198 independent mortgage companies and 107 banks and 66 credit unions. In January 2024, there were 936 lenders who delivered loans, so inspection-based waivers are now in use by 39.6% of Fannie Mae sellers.

Freddie Mac ACE+ PDR (Automated Collateral Evaluation plus Property Data Report) market share was 58.9% as utilization dropped 16.2% month-over-month. Freddie Mac participation increased to 300 lenders for the full year, including 125 community banks and credit unions, and 165 non-banks. In January 2024, there were 766 lenders who delivered loans, so inspection-based waivers are now in use by 39.2% of Freddie Mac seller/servicers.

Purchase and refinance lenders

GSE purchase-money issuance has remained at 88% for the past several months, and totaled $35.2BN for January with refinance at $4.87BN. The purchase share of inspection-based waivers was 59.2%, with cash-out refinances at 33.6% and the remaining 6.6% for non cash-out refinances.

In the past 12 months 361 lenders have accepted inspection-based waivers for purchase transactions, with 222 for Freddie Mac and 284 for Fannie Mae. For refinance transactions, the total is 389 lenders, with 250 for Freddie Mac and 268 or Fannie Mae.

Correspondent channels continue to expand

Retail channel utilization of inspection-based waivers in January fell to 55.8%, the lowest market share since February of last year, with loan delivery shrinking 17.3% to $351M. Mortgage brokers volume increased 26.5% on $166M delivered, shrinking 5.17%. Delivery from the correspondent channel grew to 17.7% at $111M, again on a 3.21% decline from December.

Top lenders expanding in December

With mortgage issuance down again January, most lenders volume of inspection-based waivers also declined. There were some notable increases in January as large lenders increased their utilization, with PennyMac, CMG, Flagstar, Freedom and Truist posting 16%, 92%, 63%, 136%, and 80% gains over the prior month.

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