RISMEDIA, July 28, 2011—Realogy Corporation, a global provider of real estate and relocation services, recently announced the Company filed comments with the six regulatory agencies responsible for drafting the rules regarding Qualified Residential Mortgage, or QRM, under the Dodd-Frank Act.
Dodd-Frank provides that a lender must retain 5% of any loan not otherwise exempt under the to-be-determined definition of a Qualified Residential Mortgage. The QRM definition proposed by the regulatory agencies would effectively require home buyers seeking mortgage financing to make a down payment of at least 20% of the purchase price. Realogy notes in its comments, among other things, that, although it agrees with other groups who have commented publicly that this proposed QRM definition is unnecessarily narrow, regulators should rethink the Dodd-Frank retention requirement entirely and consider a fundamentally different approach that Realogy refers to as the “Enhanced Disclosure Approach.” A full description of the Enhanced Disclosure Approach can be found in its public filing.
“We believe the current QRM definition that includes a down-payment requirement of 20% would create unduly tight credit standards and place homeownership out of reach for millions of potential buyers,” says Richard A. Smith, president and CEO, Realogy Corporation. “This was not the intent of Congress when the Dodd-Frank Act was passed, and we remain hopeful that the regulators will make a course correction, wisely choosing not to damage an already fragile housing market.”
For more information, please visit www.realogy.com.
