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Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Genworth Tightens Mortgage Insurance Guidelines

by Calculated Risk on 1/28/2009 10:13:00 PM

Genworth sent out a notice of tighter guidelines for mortgage insurance today effective Monday February 2nd. Some of the changes are pretty significant.

As an example, loans over $417K in California are ineligible for MI. Period. The same with attached housing in Florida - ineligible.

Here are some of the rules:

Underwriting Guideline Changes – Effective February 2, 2009
• Minimum Credit Score = 680
• Maximum Debt to Income (DTI) = 41% regardless of AUS or Submission Channel
• High Cost Loans (> $417,000) Minimum Credit Score = 740
o Loan amounts > $417,000 in CA – Ineligible
• Cash Out Refinance – Ineligible
• Second Homes – Ineligible
• Manufactured Homes – Ineligible
• Construction to Permanent – Ineligible
Declining/Distressed Markets Changes – Effective February 2, 2009
• Minimum Credit Score = 700
o AZ, CA, FL, NV = 720 (as per existing guidelines)
• Maximum Debt-to-Income = 41% regardless of AUS or submission channel
• Additions to our Declining/Distressed Markets List
o 17 states added in their entirety
o 69 MSA/CBSA added
o Please see Attachment A for a complete list of new markets
You can see the old rules and guidelines here. You can type in your zip code and "discover if the property is in a Declining/Distressed Market". (I think this is the old rules and will change on Monday)

Here is the current list of distressed markets. This included the following entire states: Arizona, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Michigan, Nevada, and New Jersey.

The mailing today added many more MSAs and the following additional entire states: Colorado, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Wisconsin, Hawaii, Maryland, New Mexico, Utah, Idaho, Massachusetts, Ohio, Vermont, Kansas, Minnesota, Oregon, Washington.

Just more tightening ...