Jumbo loan prices are red hot.

Fifty-four of the 55 Senators of the Democratic caucus in the U.S. Congress have signed a letter by Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and Banking Committee Chairman Tim Johnson of South Dakota to President Obama in support of the re-nomination of Richard Cordray to lead the CFPB and to express opposition to any structural changes to the bureau. “Under the leadership of Director Cordray, the CFPB has gotten high marks from consumer advocates and industry alike for its balanced and prudent approach to rulemaking and enforcement,”...

The GSEs continued to wrangle with seller/servicers over repurchase requests during the fourth quarter of 2012, but mostly over loans originated five years earlier.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency has not given up on its effort to install risk-based pricing for guaranty fees.

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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]

The delinquency rate of single-family mortgage loans fell to 7.09 percent of all loans outstanding on a seasonally adjusted basis at the end of the fourth quarter in 2012, the lowest level since 2008, according to the latest Mortgage Bankers Association’s national delinquency survey. The performance of FHA loans, on the other hand, was “mixed,” it said.Loan delinquencies decreased 31 basis points from the prior quarter, and were down 49 basis points from a year ago due to significant improvements in mortgage performance nationwide and in almost every state, the trade group said.“The 30-day delinquency rate dropped by ...