A modest decline in FHA endorsements of jumbo loans in the fourth quarter of 2012 could presage further declines this year, following the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s recent proposal to raise the downpayment requirement to 5 percent, from 3.5 percent, for loans above $625,500. The FHA already has raised its jumbo mortgage insurance premiums to 1.55 percent annually and increased the monthly premiums on new, non-jumbo FHA mortgages by 10 basis points. The agency retained the 3.5 percent downpayment for new forward mortgages below $625,500. The increased premiums are ... [2 charts]
Industry participants who track various FHA data, including Home Equity Conversion Mortgage loans and Neighborhood Watch compare ratios, may have noticed delays in their postings. For example, the latest available data for HECM originations was in September, the end of fiscal year 2012, and no updates have been posted since. David Stevens, president and chief executive officer of the Mortgage Bankers Association, also wondered why Neighborhood Watch was down. He suspected lack of funding. A Department of Housing and Urban Development spokesman explained that the FHA’s reporting timelines and procedures are undergoing ...
The Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs will continue focusing on FHA solvency as part of its legislative agenda for the 113th Congress and has called a hearing next week to try to reach some bipartisan agreement on FHA reform. In a memorandum, Committee Chairman Tim Johnson, D-SD, said ensuring the health of the FHA Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund is one of committee’s top priorities in sustaining and strengthening the nation’s economic recovery. Johnson said the committee will continue to conduct oversight on the condition of the FHA insurance fund and the role the FHA plays in the housing market as part of ...
The Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of the Inspector General has alerted the FHA of significant potential losses because a California-based direct endorsement lender allowed certain FHA-insured loans with prohibited restrictive covenants to be recorded. An OIG audit of 84 FHA-insured loans underwritten by Standard Pacific Mortgage of Irvine, CA, found 28 loans with unallowable restrictive covenants that were recorded in certain Florida and Arizona county registers. The loans were closed between Jan. 1, 2008, and Dec. 31, 2011, the OIG said. Of the 28 loans, 15 resulted in ...
NCOA Booklet Required Reading for HECM Borrowers. The National Council on Aging has announced the availability of the 2013 version of “Use Your Home to Stay at Home,”, the official reverse mortgage booklet approved by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The booklet is designed to help older homeowners understands the pros and cons of a reverse mortgage. Federal law requires that all individuals who are considering a reverse mortgage go through pre-counseling by a HUD-approved counseling agency and receive a copy of the NCOA guide. The NCOA also offers other ...
With heavy refinance activity feeding a strong increase in mortgage originations during 2012, lenders last year relied more heavily on their in-house capacity than ever before. A new Inside Mortgage Finance ranking and analysis shows that lenders generated a whopping $1.101 trillion in new originations through their retail production efforts, including both consumer-direct lending and traditional brick-and-mortar branches. That was up 29.2 percent from total retail originations back in 2011 and it represented a record 60.0 percent of total production for last year. The fact that the retail share of new originations held...[Includes four data charts]
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