[Federal Register Volume 79, Number 84 (Thursday, May 1, 2014)]
[Notices]
[Pages 24726-24727]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2014-09997]


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FEDERAL HOUSING FINANCE AGENCY

[No. 2014-N-06]


Proposed Collection; Comment Request

AGENCY: Federal Housing Finance Agency.

ACTION: 30-day Notice of Submission of Information Collection for 
Approval From the Office of Management and Budget.

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SUMMARY: In accordance with the requirements of the Paperwork Reduction 
Act of 1995, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) is seeking 
public comments concerning the existing information collection 
``Monthly Survey of Rates and Terms on Conventional 1-Family Nonfarm 
Mortgage Loans,'' which has been assigned control number 2590-0004 by 
the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). FHFA intends to submit the 
information collection to OMB for review and approval of a three-year 
extension of the control number, which expired on March 31, 2014.

DATES: Interested persons may submit comments on or before June 30, 
2014.
    Comments: Submit written comments to the Office of Information and 
Regulatory Affairs of the Office of Management and Budget, Attention: 
Desk Officer for the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Washington, DC 
20503, Fax: (202) 395-6974, Email address: [email protected]. Please also submit them to FHFA using any of 
the following methods:
     Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov. 
Follow the instructions for submitting comments. If you submit your 
comment to the Federal eRulemaking Portal, please also send it by email 
to FHFA at [email protected] to ensure timely receipt by the agency.
     Email: [email protected]. Please include Proposed 
Collection; Comment Request: ``Monthly Survey of Rates and Terms on 
Conventional 1-Family Nonfarm Mortgage Loans, (No. 2014-N-06)'' in the 
subject line of the message.
     Mail/Hand Delivery: Federal Housing Finance Agency, Eighth 
Floor, 400 Seventh Street SW., Washington, DC 20024, ATTENTION: Public 
Comments/Proposed Collection; Comment Request: ``Monthly Survey of 
Rates and Terms on Conventional 1-Family Nonfarm Mortgage Loans, (No. 
2014-N-06).''
    We will post all public comments we receive without change, 
including any personal information you provide, such as your name, 
address, email address, and telephone number, on the FHFA Web site at 
http://www.fhfa.gov. In addition, copies of all comments received will 
be available for examination by the public on business days between the 
hours of 10 a.m. and 3 p.m., at the Federal Housing Finance Agency, 
Eighth Floor, 400 Seventh Street SW., Washington, DC 20024. To make an 
appointment to inspect comments, please call the Office of General 
Counsel at 202-649-3804.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: David L. Roderer, Senior Financial 
Analyst, 202-408-2540 (not a toll-free number), 
[email protected], or by regular mail at the Federal Housing 
Finance Agency, 400 Seventh Street SW., Washington, DC 20024. The 
telephone number for the Telecommunications Device for the Deaf is 800-
877-8339.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

A. Need for and Use of the Information Collection

    FHFA's Monthly Survey of Rates and Terms on Conventional 1-Family 
Non-Farm Mortgage Loans, commonly referred to as the ``Monthly Interest 
Rate Survey'' or ``MIRS,'' is a monthly survey of mortgage lenders that 
solicits information on the terms and conditions on all conventional, 
single-family, fully amortized, purchase-money mortgage loans closed 
during the last five working days of the preceding month. The MIRS 
collects monthly information on interest rates, loan terms, and house 
prices by property type (i.e., new or previously occupied), by loan 
type (i.e., fixed- or adjustable-rate), and by lender type (i.e., 
mortgage companies, savings associations, commercial banks, and savings 
banks), as well as information on 15-year and 30-year fixed-rate loans. 
In addition, the survey collects quarterly information on conventional 
loans by major metropolitan area and by Federal Home Loan Bank 
district. The MIRS does not collect information on loans insured by the 
Federal Housing Administration (FHA) or guaranteed by the Veterans 
Administration (VA), loans secured by multifamily property or 
manufactured housing, or loans created by refinancing another mortgage. 
The MIRS is the most comprehensive source of information on 
conventional mortgage rates and terms in the United States.
    The MIRS originated with one of FHFA's predecessor agencies, the 
former Federal Home Loan Bank Board (FHLBB) in the 1960s. Among other 
things, the FHLBB used data collected through the MIRS to derive its 
National Average Contract Mortgage Rate for the Purchase of Previously 
Occupied Homes by Combined Lenders (ARM Index), which was used by 
lenders to set mortgage rates on adjustable rate mortgages (ARMs). No 
statutory or regulatory provision explicitly required the FHLBB to 
conduct the MIRS. However, for a period in the early 1980s, federally 
chartered savings institutions were required to use the MIRS-derived 
ARM Index in setting interest rates on ARMs. Few, if any, loans from 
that period remain. After 1981, an unknown but likely very small 
proportion of lenders used the ARM Index to set interest rates on their 
new ARMs.
    In 1989, Congress enacted the Financial Institutions Reform 
Recovery and Enforcement Act (FIRREA), which abolished the FHLBB and 
created the Federal Housing Finance Board to assume many of the FHLBB's 
powers and responsibilities. FIRREA required

[[Page 24727]]

the Chairperson of the Finance Board to ``take such actions as may be 
necessary'' to ensure that the ARM Index prepared by the FHLBB 
continued to be available.\1\ Although there was no explicit reference 
in FIRREA to the continuation of the MIRS, the Finance Board viewed 
that statutory requirement to continue to produce the ARM Index as a 
mandate to continue also to conduct the MIRS, from which the data used 
to derive the ARM Index was obtained. The Finance Board conducted the 
MIRS and produced the ARM Index from 1989 through 2008, when Congress 
abolished that agency and transferred its responsibilities to the 
newly-created FHFA.\2\
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    \1\ See Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement 
Act of 1989 (FIRREA), Public Law 101-73, Title IV, 402(e)(3), 103 
Stat. 183, codified at 12 U.S.C. 1437 note. The statute permitted 
the Finance Board to substitute a different ARM index after notice 
and comment, but only if the new index was based upon data 
substantially similar to that of the original ARM Index and 
substitution of the new ARM index would result in an interest rate 
substantially similar to the rate in effect at the time the new ARM 
index replaced the existing ARM Index. See FIRREA 402(e)(4).
    \2\ See Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 (HERA), Public 
Law 110-289, Div. A, Title III, section 1312, 122 Stat. 2794, 
codified at 12 U.S.C. 4511 note.
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    Since 2008, FHFA has continued to conduct the MIRS and produce the 
ARM Index.\3\ By statute, MIRS data is one of the factors that FHFA is 
required to consider in assessing the national average one-family house 
price for purposes of periodically adjusting the conforming mortgage 
loan limits of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.\4\ In addition, statutes in 
several states and U.S. territories, including California, Michigan, 
Minnesota, New Jersey, Wisconsin, and the Virgin Islands, refer to, or 
rely upon, the MIRS.\5\
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    \3\ The MIRS and the ARM Index are described at 12 CFR 906.5.
    \4\ See 12 U.S.C. 4542.
    \5\ See, e.g., Cal. Civ. Code sections 1916.7 and 1916.8 
(mortgage rates); Mich. Comp. Laws section 445.1621(d) (mortgage 
index rates); Minn. Stat. section 92.06 (payments for state land 
sales); N.J. Rev. Stat. 31:1-1 (interest rates); Wis. Stat. sectioni 
138.056 (variable loan rates); V.I. Code Ann. tit. 11, section 951 
(legal rate of interest).
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    Many lenders use FHFA's ARM Index, derived from MIRS data, to set 
interest rates on fixed rate loans. In addition, businesses, trade 
associations, and government agencies at both the federal and state 
level rely upon the MIRS data for various business and regulatory 
purposes. For example, economic policy makers have used the MIRS data 
to determine trends in the mortgage markets, including interest rates, 
down payments, terms to maturity, terms on ARMs, and initial fees and 
charges on mortgage loans. Other federal banking agencies, such as the 
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the Council of 
Economic Advisors, have used the MIRS results for research purposes.
    The OMB number for the information collection is 2590-0004, which 
expired on March 31, 2014. The likely respondents are mortgage lenders 
in the United States.

B. Burden Estimate

    FHFA estimates the total annual number of respondents at 70 with 6 
responses per respondent (because not every respondent will have new 
mortgage loans to report every month). The estimate for the average 
time per response is 20 minutes. The estimate for the total annual hour 
burden is 140 hours (70 respondents x 6 responses x 0.33 hours).

C. Comment Request

    FHFA published a request for public comments regarding this 
information collection in the Federal Register on January 30, 2014. See 
78 FR 24420 (Jan. 30, 2014). The 60-day comment period closed on March 
31, 2014. FHFA received one comment letter, from the Bureau of Economic 
Analysis of the U.S. Department of Commerce (BEA). In its letter, BEA 
states that it strongly supports FHFA's continued collection of data 
for the MIRS, noting that the data are ``crucial to key components of 
BEA's economic statistics.'' Specifically, BEA uses MIRS data to track 
contract rates of interest and to estimate financial costs as part of 
its estimate of rental income of persons in the national income and 
product accounts (NIPAs). Indirectly, the data are used in the industry 
annual and quarterly Input-Output and GDP-by-Industry accounts in the 
estimates of gross output and value added for the real estate sub-
sector.
    This notice requests written comments on: (1) Whether the 
collection of information is necessary for the proper performance of 
FHFA functions, including whether the information has practical 
utility; (2) The accuracy of FHFA's estimates of the burdens of the 
collection of information; (3) Ways to enhance the quality, utility, 
and clarity of the information collected; and (4) Ways to minimize the 
burden of the collection of information on survey respondents, 
including through the use of automated collection techniques or other 
forms of information technology.

    Dated: April 24, 2014.
Kevin Winkler,
Chief Information Officer, Federal Housing Finance Agency.
[FR Doc. 2014-09997 Filed 4-30-14; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 8070-01-P