In The News - TRID and Rates

In the News

Presented by Prairie Title          

Commentary by Frank Pellegrini, Prairie Title CEO

September 22, 2015

In less than two weeks, our industry world will “change, change utterly” to paraphrase the Irish poet W.B. Yeats. Our industry changeover will be nothing like the upheaval Yeats wrote about in his tribute to Irish revolutionaries (a number of whom lost their lives) in 1916. Yeats went to say “A terrible beauty is born.” Perhaps that echoes our situation a little bit — with no lives at stake, of course.

Our business is undergoing a revolution, and while the forced change in the way we do business may seem “terrible,” recognizable “beauty” can come out of our implementation of TRID. Most importantly, the new TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosure rule is intended to benefit consumers by making the residential real estate lending and closing process simpler and easier to understand. In my view, a more consumer-friendly process has been a long time in coming. We should be able to lend and close on residential real estate transactions in a manner that is not intimidating to the uninitiated while protecting consumers and industry interests alike. I see the beauty in that.

My best advice as we move forward? Keep calm, be prepared and keep you arms and legs in the car as the ride begins. Things may get a little wild but the payoff will be there.

When you get the inevitable questions from home buyers and sellers about TRID, there are great resources out there you can recommend. MBA, NAR and ALTA all have terrific consumer-oriented information on their sites, and the CFPB just released new consumer TRID Tools.

In other news, on September 17 the Fed announced that it would not raise interest rates — for now. In the announcement, Fed Chief Janet Yellen said, “Recovery from the Great Recession has advanced sufficiently far, and domestic spending appears sufficiently robust, that an argument can be made for a rise in interest rates at this time,” Yellen said in her opening statement. “We discussed this possibility at our meeting. However, in light of the heightened uncertainties abroad and a slightly softer expected path for inflation, the committee judged it appropriate to wait for more evidence, including some further improvement in the labor market, to bolster its confidence that inflation will rise to 2 percent in the medium term.”

Yellen affirmed that a rate increase could be in the works as soon as next month. In other words, stay tuned. What if rates do rise in the near term? NAR has some thoughts.

Let’s keep the discussion going. Call or email me; or write a comment below.

 

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Mortgage Bankers See Seller’s Market in 2016.

Millennial Magnet: Transparency and Technology.

The Vitals on Title Insurance.

Fannie: Economy to Grow in Second Half.