Concerns about red tape from lenders have prompted an increasing share of homebuyers to use all cash to purchase a home, according to the latest Campbell/Inside Mortgage Finance HousingPulse Tracking Survey. Some 29.3 percent of home purchases completed in November relied solely on cash, based on a three-month moving average. That was the third monthly increase in the share of cash transactions. Tom Popik, research director of Campbell Surveys, said...

After ending fiscal year 2012 at a negative $16.3 billion, the FHA’s mutual mortgage insurance fund is close to being in the black, according to an independent actuarial report released late last week. The FHA noted that it has shifted its focus from shoring up the MMIF to reducing lenders’ underwriting overlays and targeting poorly performing servicers. The net worth of the MMIF at the end of fiscal year 2013 was negative $1.3 billion, according to the report, due to pricing and policy changes by the Department of Housing and Urban Development along with improvements to the economy. The capital reserve ratio for the MMIF also improved from negative 1.44 percent at the end of fiscal 2012 to negative 0.11 percent at the end of fiscal 2013. HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan noted...

The U.S. Treasury’s new Federal Insurance Office released a long-awaited report last week that calls for the federal oversight of mortgage insurers, an industry now overseen directly by state insurance regulators and indirectly by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Housing Finance Agency. “Federal standards and oversight for mortgage insurers should be developed and implemented,” said the report. The private mortgage insurance sector is interconnected...

Home-equity lending has quietly begun to rebound in 2013 as firmer house prices give homeowners more to borrow against and rising mortgage rates diminish the appeal of refinancing. According to revised Inside Mortgage Finance estimates, a total of $43.5 billion of home-equity lines of credit and closed-end second mortgages were originated during the first nine months of this year. That was up 30.8 percent from the same period in 2012 and it included a hefty 13.3 percent increase from the second to the third quarter of this year. The increase in HEL production so far hasn’t turned...[Includes three data charts]

Sales of several bulk portfolios of mortgage servicing rights were still pending as yearend approached, with talk increasing about a busy year in the mergers and acquisitions market for 2014. As always, the driver of such talk was interest rates: Higher rates are causing MSRs to increase in value, while a slowdown in refinancing is scaring many under-capitalized nonbanks into considering the once-unthinkable: selling out or partnering with a competitor. Originations are...

Citing its goal and the White House’s stated preference to reduce the market presence of the government-sponsored enterprises, the Federal Housing Finance Agency this week proposed setting “loan-purchase limits” for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The FHFA said it could use its authority as conservator to set loan-purchase limits about 4.0 percent below the statutory GSE loan limits it established for 2014. Instead of a national floor of $417,000, the top single-unit mortgage Fannie and Freddie would buy in markets that are not designated high cost would be $400,000. The maximum purchase limit in high-cost markets would be $600,000, rather than $625,500, and all the “tweener” high-cost limits would similarly be reduced by 4.0 percent. “The loan purchase limits … would modestly reduce...

The Federal Reserve will slightly decrease the amount of its monthly purchases of agency mortgage-backed securities but agency MBS issuance might decline by even more than the Fed's planned taper.

Originations of home-equity loans are up in 2013, led by credit unions.

Revised loan-level price adjustments recently announced by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that will make mortgages more expensive for a wide breadth of borrowers are not sitting well with different factions of the industry, including mortgage insurance firms that could lose some of their hard-fought market share gains. Industry trade groups are already turning to their friends in Congress, hoping that certain key members of the House and Senate financial service committees might have a talk with Rep. Mel Watt, the North Carolina Democrat who’s waiting to be sworn in as the new director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency. The government-sponsored enterprises announced...[Includes one data chart]

Limited examination resources and staff turnover at the Federal Housing Finance Agency remain a concern, according to the FHFA's Office of Inspector General.