The Department of Housing and Urban Development has announced plans to consolidate multifamily hubs nationwide and close a number of its smaller field offices. The plan would result in an estimated $61.9 million in annual costs savings for HUD after completion and affect approximately 900 of the department’s 9,300 employees. No employee will be laid off as a result of the restructuring, according to HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan. Donovan said the changes are part of a broader, long-term effort that will allow HUD to continue to deliver high-quality services by adapting modern best practices. The decision to ...

Despite little vocal, organized opposition, expected industry group support and bipartisan praise, industry observers on Capitol Hill say it is far from a given that the White House will follow through and nominate Moody’s Analytics’ Chief Economist Mark Zandi to a five-year term as the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency. The buzz has died down considerably since the White House leaked Zandi’s name early last week in the latest trial balloon of potential nominees to replace Edward DeMarco, who has led the FHFA in an acting capacity since September 2009. However, there’s a growing feeling of certainty within the industry that if President Obama does in fact follow through and sends a name to the Senate for confirmation, it would be Zandi.

Look for Fannie Mae’s and Freddie Mac’s regulator to press forward with its policy proposal to develop a set of aligned standards for force-placed insurance, the head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency told lawmakers last week. Testifying before the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, FHFA Acting Director Edward DeMarco said the agency plans to pursue a “broader approach” to force-placed insurance. “Our goal is to establish a set of standards that could be adopted by a broader set of mortgage market participants, similar to what was done with the Servicing Alignment Initiative,” said DeMarco. “This broadened approach will also enable greater regulatory coordination in an effort to consider the various issues associated with lender-placed insurance.”

The Federal Housing Finance Agency’s recent extension of the Home Affordable Refinance Program has “significantly lessened” the already slim prospects of any so-called HARP 3.0 legislation advancing through Congress, say analysts. The Responsible Homeowner Refinancing Act of 2013, by Sens. Robert Menendez, D-NJ, and Barbara Boxer, D-CA, had already been struggling to gain traction in Congress amid the steady volume of HARP refis in recent months and Republican resistance to expanding current HARP eligibility requirements. HARP had been scheduled to expire at the end of this year before the FHFA’s directive to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac earlier this month to extend the refi program through Dec. 31, 2015.

The Inspector General of the Federal Housing Finance Agency told senators last week that the FHFA still doesn’t have enough examiners, in his opinion, to sufficiently regulate the GSEs, while the Finance Agency head noted that the FHFA has added more than 200 staffers since 2008, with just a bit more hiring planned. Testifying before the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, FHFA IG Steve Linick said that the Finance Agency is making progress on a number of fronts, including GSE assets and implementing the OIG’s audit and evaluation recommendations. However, following a 2011 OIG report which identified “shortfalls” in the FHFA’s examination coverage due to examiner shortages, the FHFA has made progress by “reorganizing the examination function and hiring new staff [but] it is not clear that the FHFA has achieved adequate resources.”

The Federal Housing Finance Agency is soliciting comments from the public on how its regulations may be “more effective and less burdensome.” The FHFA’s call for comments in a April 19 publication of the Federal Register is in keeping with a 2011 executive order that calls for each independent regulatory agency, including the FHFA, to analyze its existing regulations and “modify, streamline, expand or repeal them,” as well as to make public a plan to periodically review its “existing significant regulations” to make the agency’s regulatory program “more effective or less burdensome” in achieving regulatory objectives.

The Department of Justice recently announced enforcement actions against a New York-based FHA lender and its owner/president for fraudulent certification of FHA-insured loans as well as two separate settlements with bank subsidiaries for alleged violations of the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act. In the first action, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the HUD Office of the Inspector General jointly announced a civil mortgage fraud lawsuit against ...

The unrelenting campaign by liberal Democrats and progressive activists to depose the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s acting director could backfire by making him politically untouchable, while the badgering directed at the Obama administration threatens to alienate the very man they seek to convince to act in their favor, according to industry observers. According to a memo released late this week that was prepared by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s legal team, President Obama has the power to replace FHFA Acting Director Edward DeMarco without congressional approval. “We conclude that the president has the authority to remove the acting director at will, and there is a strong argument that he has the authority to designate a new acting director, although the answer to that question is less certain,” noted Schneiderman’s memo.

Fannie Mae’s and Freddie Mac’s recent, unambiguous return to profitability will diminish an already waning urgency among Capitol Hill lawmakers to proceed with legislative GSE reform as the companies’ profits flow into the U.S. Treasury by the billions, industry experts warn. Fannie announced last week that the GSE expects to remain profitable “for the foreseeable future” after posting record-shattering quarterly and yearly earnings for the period ending Dec. 31, 2012. In the wake of Fannie’s announcement, the White House this week said that from January 2013 to the end of 2023 the two GSEs could send $183.3 billion to the Treasury.

The Home Affordable Refinance Program will continue for another two years as the number of HARP refis for deeply underwater borrowers continued to represent a “substantial portion” of total HARP volume in January, the Federal Housing Finance Agency announced this week. HARP had been scheduled to expire at the end of this year before the FHFA’s directive to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to extend the program through Dec. 31, 2015. “FHFA determined that extending the program now will provide additional opportunities to refinance, give clear guidance to lenders, and reduce losses for Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and taxpayers,” said the Finance Agency.