Although Freedom is private, a few years back it launched a publicly traded REIT called Cherry Hill Mortgage Investment, which lately has been trading near its 52-week high.
Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson plans to hit the ground running with a nationwide listening tour to learn more about the agency he will lead and the FHA programs he will oversee. This week, Carson, a neurosurgeon, was sworn in as the 17th secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development after the U.S. Senate voted 58 to 41 to confirm his nomination. A handful of Democrats, including Sen. Sherrod Brown, OH, ranking minority member on the Senate Banking Committee, joined Republicans in support of Carson in spite of his inexperience in housing policy and in running a federal agency. In a statement following Carson’s committee confirmation Jan. 24, Brown said he would have not picked the nominee to lead HUD because of his lack of experience and controversial public statements. Brown said he decided to give Carson a ...
Ginnie Mae production fell substantially in February from January as the government-insured lending market continued to lose steam in the first quarter of 2017. Ginnie mortgage-backed securities issuance fell 24.0 percent from January as fewer purchase and refinance loans were pooled for securitization, bringing February’s total issuance to just $32.2 billion. Year-over-year Ginnie MBS issuance, on the other hand, increased by 6.2 percent. The government-insured market set an all-time record of $545.0 billion in originations during 2016, a whopping 31.0 percent jump from the previous year. That total eclipsed previous records for originations of FHA, VA and rural housing loans guaranteed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, according to data compiled by affiliate Inside Mortgage Finance. In addition, government-insured lending accounted for a record ... [ 3 charts ]
IRS to Require More Information About Taxpayers’ Home Mortgage. Beginning tax year 2017, the Internal Revenue Service will require taxpayers to disclose additional information about their home mortgages. Currently, the IRS only requires disclosure of the loan’s principal balance at the beginning of the year, origination date and address of property securing the loan. Under the revised rule, taxpayers must report on the 2017 Form 1098 information such as mortgage insurance premium, confirmation that the address of the property is the same as the borrower’s address, description of the property in case the address is unreported, and the number of mortgaged properties owned by the taxpayer. Specifically, the information will help the IRS determine whether deducted mortgage interest is within the $1 million limit on home acquisition debt and $100,000 of home-equity debt, and whether the ...
The Department of Housing and Urban Development’s inspector general is warning FHA appraisers to be careful with their state certification numbers lest they fall victim to identity thieves. The HUD IG said it has uncovered a series of appraiser identity thefts that resulted from the unauthorized use of a state-issued certification number of an FHA roster appraiser. The FHA roster appraiser was unaware of the theft until its discovery, usually by accident, the IG said. Such incidents occur when an FHA appraiser provides his or her personal identification number (PIN) for the desktop appraisal software to a colleague or supervisor. Reasons for providing the PIN varied, i.e., the PIN was needed to keep the process moving, the lender requested a fast turnaround, or for contingency, in case the roster appraiser was away or unavailable. Such actions raise the risks for theft and misuse because the appraiser can never be sure the ...
Lenders originated $4.93 billion of rural housing loans with a U.S. Department of Agriculture guarantee during the fourth quarter of last year, 33.2 percent more than volume reported during the same period the year prior, according to the Housing Assistance Council’s report on USDA Rural Housing program obligations. USDA provided guarantees under the Section 502 Guaranteed Rural Housing Loan program to 34,412 rural housing loans in the fourth quarter, up from 26,889 loans ($3.7 billion) at the end of 2015. The program is the largest of the USDA’s single-family housing programs. For the Section 502 Direct Guarantee program, guarantees exceeded $196.6 million (1,492 loans), up from $174.7 million (1,334 loans) at the end of 2015. Very low-income (VLI) loan obligations as a percentage of taxpayer funds allocated to the USDA direct loan guarantee program were 38.9 percent, exceeding the ...
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