Local Members at NAR Make Change on Fee Increase for Borrowers

By Todd Shea
2023 President
Santa Barbara Association of Realtors

From May 8th through May 11th of this year, our local Santa Barbara Association of REALTORS® leadership traveled to Washington DC to attend the NAR (National Association of REALTORS®) legislative conference. This conference is a place where the leadership of every association in the United States comes together and talks about trends in the market, legislation on a national level that affects the housing industry, and networks with one another.

This year there were a variety of hot topics including lack of inventory, new construction and replacing retail with residential, insurance, electrification, capital gains, tax incentives, initiatives for underserved communities and diversity, and legislation affecting homeowners. SOME BIG TOPICS! And for fun, AI was thrown in the mix. When you go to these meetings with such large topics, sometimes it is hard to feel like you can make a difference.

Announced a few months ago in January, and garnering national news attention, the FHFA (Federal Housing Finance Agency) announced a proposal for a loan level pricing adjustment, or upfront fee, on borrowers with debt-to-income ratios (DTIs) greater than 40%. Along with this were increased fees for those borrowers with credit scores above 680 and down payments from 5-25%. Meaning basically that if you did well, and worked hard to establish good credit, you were now going to pay more in fees.

Well, I am happy to report that positive change was made directly from this NAR conference. It feels good to be a part of protecting homeowners, personal property rights, and buyers and sellers. Coming out of the NAR conference on May 10th, 2023, the FHFA rescinded its proposed loan level pricing adjustment. NAR President Kenny Parcell issued the following statement. “We are pleased that our advocacy efforts on behalf of our 1.5 million members and their clients were successful. We applaud the FHFA for listening to the industry’s concerns by choosing to drop this fee on borrowers with higher debt-to-income ratios. It would have imposed a cost on borrowers at a time in the market when affordability is already stretched and only made them riskier.”

These changes would not occur without the efforts of all of our local REALTORS®, not only speaking their minds but from their financial contributions to the RAF, REALTOR® Action Fund, and nationally with the RPAC, REALTOR® Political Action Committee. Each year REALTORS locally and around the nation contribute funds that go to help protect the industry and personal property rights as well as stopping point of sale mandates that could have cost the homeowner $1000s of dollars reducing their equity or may have even prevented the sale from going through. This also helps lobby for political candidates who are pro-housing and align with REALTOR® issues among other benefits.

Todd Shea is the 2023 president of the Santa Barbara Association of Realtors (SBAOR). He is a California licensed real estate agent with the Zia Group powered by eXp Realty here in Santa Barbara. He has served on and chaired several committees within the SBAOR and served on its board of directors. Todd can be reached at 805.453.7730 and todd@ziagroup.com or message and follow @toddshearealtor on Instagram.