Certain aggregators of FHA loans are reportedly refusing to purchase FHA streamline refinance loans, fearing shoddy underwriting on the original loan might raise compliance issues down the road. How widespread is the problem is unclear but an industry consultant, who was tipped off by other aggregators, said the problem seems more of a servicing nature, rather than origination. Prior to 2010, FHA lenders originated many streamline refis with seller-funded downpayment assistance. Many of these loans ended up with high default rates, prompting FHA to eliminate seller-funded DPA and to tighten the FHA streamline refi program. Streamline refi originations fell and the program saw very little activity until the FHA revived the program with changes during the crisis to spur lending and help FHA borrowers refinance. Streamline refis do not require full underwriting. The basic requirements are that the mortgage to be refinanced must be FHA-insured, current on the ...
Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-MD, ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-OH, ranking member of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, earlier this month expressed concern about the sale of nonperforming loans to private investors without sufficient protections for homeowners and neighborhoods. Both lawmakers fear that FHA may not be providing enough incentives to servicers to modify ailing mortgages and that certain investors may be more interested in foreclosure than a cure. The influx of private investors has crowded out first-time homebuyers and raised concerns about the long-term effects of investor-owned homes in communities where foreclosures run high. In a joint letter, the two lawmakers sought information from the Department of Housing and Urban Development about ...
House Approves Legislation Streamlining FHA Condo Rules, Allowing DE Lenders for USDA. Housing reform legislation that would ease FHA restrictions on condominium financing and allow delegation of loan approval authority to qualified lenders under the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s rural housing programs passed the House last week by a vote of 427-0. Described as an FHA reform bill, H.R. 3700, the “Housing Opportunity Through Modernization Act,” would modify FHA requirements for condo mortgages by streamlining FHA’s project certification requirements to qualify condominiums for FHA financing as well as making recertification less burdensome. H.R. 3700 would also expand the USDA’s Section 502 Guaranteed Rural Housing Loan Program for single families by delegating loan-approval authority to certain participating lenders. FHA and VA loan programs already ...
Don’t tell Bernie Sanders this, but the upper class appeared to suffer less than other folks during the fourth-quarter decline in mortgage production, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance ranking and analysis. Mortgage lenders produced an estimated $78 billion of big-ticket home loans to, hopefully, well-to-do borrowers during the final three months of last year. That was down 8.2 percent from the third quarter, a little over half the rate of decline in total mortgage originations during the period. For the full year, jumbo mortgages accounted...[Includes two data tables]
The Blackstone Group this week continued its expanding reach into the mortgage industry, agreeing to buy – through an affiliate – Interactive Mortgage Advisors, Denver, one of the busiest sellers of mortgage servicing rights in the nation. No purchase price was revealed. IMA is being sold through an “asset” transfer. Its trading desk affiliate, Spurs Capital, is not part of the transaction, though the two firms will maintain a working relationship. In the fourth quarter, IMA brokered...
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