Category: Uncategorized
Letter: Joint Trade Letter to FHFA on Credit Score Models and Reports Initiative
Statement: USMI on the Confirmation of Bill Pulte as FHFA Director
WASHINGTON—Seth Appleton, President of U.S. Mortgage Insurers (USMI), released the following statement on today’s Senate confirmation of Bill Pulte as Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Director by a bipartisan vote of 56 to 43:
“USMI congratulates Director Pulte on his Senate confirmation to lead FHFA and oversee critical financial institutions that facilitate more than $8 trillion in funding for the U.S. housing market. The private mortgage insurance industry has long worked with FHFA, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (the GSEs), the Federal Home Loan Banks, and other housing finance stakeholders to reduce barriers to homeownership and ensure access to affordable and sustainable mortgage credit backed by private capital. In fact, private mortgage insurance has helped nearly 40 million low down payment borrowers become homeowners, $1.4 trillion in GSE mortgages currently outstanding have protection from MI coverage, and private mortgage insurers have paid nearly $60 billion in claims since the GSEs entered conservatorship. USMI strongly agrees with Director Pulte’s statement in his nomination hearing that taking risk away from the taxpayers and giving it to the private market is a win and USMI and its members look forward to working with Director Pulte and his team at FHFA to accomplish that goal while also prudently ensuring access to sustainable mortgage credit for first-time homebuyers.”
###
U.S. Mortgage Insurers (USMI) is dedicated to a housing finance system backed by private capital that enables access to housing finance for borrowers while protecting taxpayers. Mortgage insurance offers an effective way to make mortgage credit available to more people. USMI is ready to help build the future of homeownership. Learn more at www.usmi.org.
Op-Ed: Despite headwinds, homeownership remains important in Missouri and across U.S.
USMI President Seth Appleton authored an opinion piece in the Springfield News-Leader on the greatest challenges that future homebuyers face in his home state using data from USMI’s 2024 National Homeownership Survey. In the piece, he explains how thousands have been able to purchase with low down payment mortgages using private MI and calls for the renewal of a tax deduction that more than 14,000 Missourians claimed in 2021 before the deduction expired. “For 15 years, millions of homeowners relied on this deduction to offset some of the costs of homeownership. There aren’t that many no-brainers in Washington, D.C. This, however, is one of them,” said Appleton. Read the full piece here.
Letter: USMI Letter for the Record for the Committee on Ways and Means’ January 14th Hearing
USMI submitted a letter for the record for the House Committee on Ways and Means’ January 14, 2025 hearing titled “The Need to Make Permanent the Trump Tax Cuts for Working Families.” As the Committee on Ways & Means assesses the expiring and permanent provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), USMI strongly encourages Congress to support existing homeowners and prospective homebuyers by reinstating, making permanent, and expanding eligibility for the mortgage insurance (MI) premium tax deduction. USMI specifically urges Congress to include the bipartisan, bicameral Middle Class Mortgage Insurance Premium Act in tax legislation considered in 2025 and commends Representative Vern Buchanan (R-FL) and Jimmy Panetta (D-CA), as well as their counterparts Senators Thom Tillis (R-NC) and Maggie Hassan (D-NH), for championing this common-sense and targeted tax policy to assist working families. Read the full letter here.
