MBS Highway's Barry Habib on the Coronavirus mortgage meltdown

The Housing News Podcast is a weekly wrap of the top news stories by HousingWire CEO Clayton Collins.

Each week, HousingWire interviews financial services experts who can help make sense of the latest headlines sponsored by our partners at Arch MI and Quicken Loans Mortgage Services.

This week, MBS Highway Founder and CEO Barry Habib, who was recently named the 2020 winner of the Crystal Ball Award, presented by Zillow and Pulsenomics, joins the Housing News Podcast for its fifth episode of season three.

In the first half of this two-show episode, Habib discusses the Coronavirus’ impact on the U.S. housing market and explains how a global pandemic hurled the housing finance industry in an economic storm that has yet to pass.

Habib, who says “not even Stephen King could have scripted this”, also explains why the Federal Reserve’s desire to lower mortgage rates isn’t just damaging for mortgage servicers, but lenders who now fear losing the ability to hedge their risk.

According to Habib, not only does the Federal Reserve need to temporarily slow MBS purchases to allow pipelines to clear, but they must more clearly communicate that mortgage rates and the Fed Funds Rate are not one and the same.

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