 TITLE: What’s a Qualified Mortgage? CONTENT: Types of Qualified Mortgages\n----------------------------\nWhen the CFPB set forth the Qualified Mortgage requirements listed above, it made provisions for certain special-case exemptions. As a result, there are currently three subcategories of loans that can be considered Qualified Mortgages:\n1.  **General-definition QMs**: Mortgages that meet all four requirements listed above are known as general-definition QMs.\n2.  **GSE-eligible QMs**: Conforming loans that meet requirements for purchase by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) that buy mortgages from lenders and convert them to securities traded by investors, are temporarily exempt from the QM 43% DTI requirement. This exemption will stay in place until January 10, 2021, or until the GSEs emerge from the conservatorship under the agency that regulates them, the Federal Housing Finance Administration (FHFA). After the 2008 housing crisis badly destabilized GSEs, the FHFA took control of them and is working to restore them to solid financial footing.\n    Loans that qualify for insurance by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), Veterans Administration (VA) or U.S. Department of Agriculture (which underwrites certain farm loans) also can be considered QMs regardless of the debt-to-income ratio, until those agencies issue their own QM rules or until January 10, 2021, whichever comes first.\n3.  **Small-creditor QMs.** Mortgage lenders with less than $2 billion in assets that originate 500 or fewer private home mortgages annually—generally small banks and credit unions—can call their mortgages QMs if they keep the loans in their own portfolios (in other words, don't resell them to GSEs or other secondary buyers) and consider and verify each borrower's DTI as part of their lending decisions (though no specific DTI limit applies). END