The U.S. Senate this week passed legislation that includes reforms to current FHA restrictions on condominium financing, among other provisions. H.R. 3700, the Housing Opportunity Through Modernization Act of 2016, was approved without amendment by unanimous consent. The bill passed in the House of Representatives by a vote of 427-0 in February. The bill addresses problems facing buyers and sellers of condominiums. Specifically, the bill modifies the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s rental assistance and public housing programs, FHA’s requirements for condo mortgage insurance and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s single-family housing guaranteed loan program. Among other things, the bill requires the FHA to make recertifications “substantially less burdensome,” while lowering the ownership-occupancy requirement from 50 percent to 35 percent. The current ...

With the improvement in loan performance, credit quality and serious delinquency rate, some mortgage industry observers think the FHA is poised for another premium reduction before the end of the year. It is a better time for the Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund, with fiscal year 2016 volume expected to exceed $220 billion, way more than the $170 billion the last independent actuarial report had predicted. Serious delinquency rates decreased in the first quarter to 5.31 percent, near the lowest level since 2008, according to FHA’s latest quarterly report to Congress. Rates for those vintages most affected by the recent economic recession (2006-2008) continue to decline. In addition, claims continue to be well below actuarial predictions – 32 percent less than predicted for the first quarter. Also, MMIF watchers are optimistic that the next actuarial report will show a higher capital cushion. According to the ...

House Republicans this week accused the Department of Housing and Urban Development of giving preferential treatment to political favorites in changes to FHA distressed asset sales. House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling, R-TX, denounced changes HUD Secretary Julian Castro made to the Distressed Asset Sale Program (DASP), saying the moves help liberal special interests at the expense of private investors. Hensarling said the changes would create “preferential bidding” for certain buyers and restrict investor options. HUD expanded DASP in 2012 as a conduit for selling nonperforming FHA loans to investors with the proviso they must first help borrowers save their homes from foreclosure and foreclose only if all loan-modification options have been exhausted. Distressed note sales also helped stabilize FHA’s Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund and have contributed more than ...

Ginnie Mae issuers produced a hefty $125.42 billion of new single-family mortgage-backed securities during the second quarter of 2016, according to a new Inside FHA/VA Lending analysis of MBS data. The government-insured market continued to run hotter than the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac sector. Ginnie MBS issuance – including FHA’s home-equity conversion mortgage program – was up 31.1 percent from the first quarter, while single-family MBS issuance by the two government-sponsored enterprises rose 26.2 percent over the same period. Excluding HECM, Ginnie issuance was up 31.5 percent in the second quarter. While FHA forward mortgages continued to be the biggest source of collateral, the VA program actually produced a bigger gain, 42.4 percent, from the first to the second quarter. VA production saw a major boost in refinance activity, up 58.4 ... [Includes four charts ]

We don’t know who will lead the new administration, though for Ginnie’s sake, it’s likely that both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton won’t mess with the agency or its charter. Right?

Social Finance is originating $70 million per month in jumbo mortgages and is considering issuing a jumbo mortgage-backed security, according to industry participants that have met with officials at the marketplace lender. Adjustable-rate mortgages accounted for approximately 25.0 percent of jumbo originations in May, according to Black Knight Financial Services. The firm said the jumbo ARM share of originations has declined from 29.0 percent as recently as ... [Includes five briefs]

Investors in non-agency mortgage-backed securities serviced by Ocwen Financial released a report this week calling for Standard & Poor’s to upgrade Ocwen’s servicer ratings. In June 2015, S&P downgraded Ocwen Loan Servicing’s servicer ratings to “below average,” citing regulatory issues and investor scrutiny along with concerns about internal audits at Ocwen. The downgrade is a focus for some investors because some of the non-agency MBS serviced by Ocwen have ...

A federal jury in late June ruled in favor of former officials from Thornburg Mortgage in a lawsuit brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission in 2012. The charges centered on disclosure and accounting issues the jumbo lender faced in early 2008. The trial involved 10 counts against Larry Goldstone and Clay Simmons, the former CEO and chief financial officer of Thornburg, respectively. The jury ruled in favor of the former Thornburg officials on six counts and was ...

Underwriting characteristics on the jumbo mortgage-backed securities issued in the second quarter of 2016 loosened slightly, according to a new analysis by Inside Nonconforming Markets. The average combined loan-to-value ratio increased somewhat compared with recent quarters and average credit scores declined. Small fluctuations in average debt-to-income ratios have also been seen in the past years. The underwriting characteristics for ... [Includes two data charts]

An aggregator review of Redwood Trust by Moody’s Investors Service included an affirmation of an “above average” assessment of the firm’s prime jumbo activities along with some criticism of Redwood’s quality control process, among other issues. Moody’s assessment of Redwood’s quality control and audit activities was lowered from average to below average “because Redwood eliminated its independent third-party review quality control process in lieu of due diligence results ...