In 2016, nearly one in five newly originated loans were Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loans. Although these loans led to an increase in home sales, they also comprised more than 34 percent of loans that were delinquent over 30 days, or nearly 8 million in outstanding FHA loans.
The resource-intensive business of construction lending has primarily been the purview of the big banks, but in recent years, smaller mortgage lenders have increasingly broken into the industry. Historically, mortgage banks have lacked the capital to become competitive in the construction lending space; this all changed with the advent of warehouse capacity, a specialized line of credit provided to mortgage bankers by warehouse lenders.
For a long time, home equity line of credit (HELOC) loans were the “go-to” short-term loan for homeowners, reaching a record high of $430 billion in 2006. With looser HELOC lending practices blamed for contributing to the 2008 housing crash, consumer confidence declined alongside the housing market.
