Prices for luxury homes break from overall trend; The Mortgage Calculator launches asset depletion and asset utilization mortgage program; Planet Financial Group appoints Tim Fisher as senior vice president of non-agency lending.

FHA is continuing to endorse most single-family home loans during the government shutdown, but with some constraints.

About a week before FHA’s updated loss-mitigation waterfall went into effect, the agency issued several changes. However, servicers have additional time to incorporate the new updates.

Ongoing maintenance of FHA’s Loan Review System will likely be prolonged by the government shutdown. The system remains offline in the meantime.

High churn rates in the VA program lead to higher interest rates for FHA borrowers because loans from the two programs are pooled together in Ginnie Mae MBS. But there’s not a clear path to separate them.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development wants to know whether any statutory changes could improve the programs. Meanwhile, there is no update on the HMBS 2.0 product proposed last year.

The bill would stop FHA from collecting mortgage insurance premiums once a borrower’s loan-to-value ratio declines to 78%.

LGY updates accepted reservist documentation; HUD reduces multifamily mortgage insurance premiums; USDA posts shutdown banner; USDA encourages multifamily projects to watch costs.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is seeking feedback on updates to disclosure requirements for publicly-registered non-agency MBS and ABS.

One way to get mortgage rates to decline and stay that way is to entice more institutional investors to buy agency MBS. The Federal Reserve is no longer increasing its holdings, but how much room is there at Fannie and Freddie? Answer: more than you might think.