NAR along with the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA), Housing Policy Council (HPC), National Association of Home Builders of the United States (NAHB), U.S. Mortgage Insurers (USMI), and American Bankers Association (ABA) sent a letter to the banking regulators along with the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) urging them to maintain the current equalization between the Qualified Mortgage rule and Qualified Residential Mortgage rule (QM=QRM).
As a reminder, the Qualified Mortgage (QM) rule dictates a level of presumed compliance with the Ability to Repay (ATR) rule or a higher level of quality for mortgage originations. The Qualified Residential Mortgage (QRM) rule designates a higher level of quality or lower risk in mortgage backed securities issuance. Thus, setting the two equal creates a common legal benchmark and level of quality between the primary and secondary market. Different definitions could result in lower liquidity and higher costs or limited access for consumers. NAR has previously supported setting QM equal to QRM.