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MortgagePoint ยป Your Trusted Source for Mortgage Banking and Servicing News 38 August 2025 T H E E X C H A N G E NATION ONE MORTGAGE CORPORATION'S PHIL CRESCENZO JR. The Nation One Mortgage VP shares his outlook on a potential end to conservatorship, the impact of credit score-based pricing, and why lenders need to keep messaging simple and focused. B y DAV I D W H A R T O N P hil Crescenzo Jr. Serves as VP, Southeast Division, at Nation One Mortgage Corporation. Crescenzo has over 20 years of industry experience helping homeowners, realtors, and building partners navigate the mortgage credit and approval process, making it easier for them to qualify. Whether buying, selling, refinancing, or building a dream home, Crescenzo understands that his clients have a lot on the line and is aware of the complexities of the market. As a mortgage expert, Crescenzo constantly monitors market conditions and the changes in mortgage programs in order to quickly and accurately provide financial guidance. Crescenzo and his team have a background in working with FHA Loans, VA loans, fixed-rate mortgages, adjustable-rate mortgages, HARP 2.0, reverse mortgages, and more. In this candid Q&A, Crescenzo offers his take on the long-standing effects of GSE conservatorship, how credit score pricing continues to box out would-be buyers, and what originators should prioritize when talking with clients in today's unpredictable market. From equity-driven opportunity to policy-induced uncertainty, he argues that success lies in clarity, agility, and understanding what borrowers need. Q: Could you discuss the potential impacts on the housing market if the GSEs end up finally leaving conservatorship? Crescenzo Jr.: I worked in the industry before they were taken over in con- servatorship, before the crash in 2008 and right after that. I have experience working with conventional loans and how they compare to FHA loans, then and now. One thing that gets lost in translation there is that when [conser- vatorship] took place, it was trying to recoup massive losses. It was panic. It was trying to correct a lot of things at once over a short period. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had such excessive price adjustments to start recouping some of the losses. They had to pay back big gains, but once the money was paid back, they never took it away. They kept them there. So, they're cashing in on astronomical amounts of money because they started a certain way and never changed. That made it where, for a 620 or a 640 credit score, it became very difficult to obtain a conventional loan without severe price hits in the loan-level price adjustments. What that means in real life is that a 620 credit score, or even a 660, can't put 3% to 5% down without as- tronomical mortgage insurance because it's based on the criteria. Say if it's FHA, it's a flat amount. There are only two variations on FHA regarding PMI. The shift went one way and another, and it created this huge divide in between. What happens in that huge divide is that homebuyers get left behind and boxed out of the market. If you have an FHA mortgage to compare, it doesn't matter what the credit score is; the MIP is going to be 0.55 for 3.5% down, and it's going to be 0.5 for 5% down and more. Let's take a conventional loan in today's market with a 620 credit score, which would be pretty good for FHA, or would be above the minimum qualifying. If you take a 620 credit score with 5% down, not even three and a half, and you're going to put more down, that PMI would be priced at about 220 basis points, which is five times the amount of that borrower's monthly payment, so they're not taking that loan. What also took a big hit were cash-out loans. So, if a client wants to refinance with all these price adjust- ments and price hits when they are in an interest rate environment that's already strained, that's going to push even more people out because, financially, it wouldn't make sense to get a cash-out