Tackling Title
In a blog post today, Fannie quietly renews its quest for alternatives to traditional title insurance. The post focuses in general on closing costs, noting for example how regressive these are by citing cost differences of 13% for low-income first-time homebuyers than for all homebuyers on median closing costs as a percent of the home purchase price and 19% for non-low-income repeat homebuyers. Title insurance is discussed at length, with Fannie noting its efforts to allow homeowners to use lower-cost options as well as emphasizing the low risk of title claims due to real-estate data digitalization. The post does not go on to suggest that Fannie might simply omit a title-insurance requirement for at least first-time or LMI borrowers, but this seems to be the point.