The consent orders agreed to recently by 14 mortgage servicers and two third-party service providers will have little impact on the servicing of FHA loans, according to compliance experts. The only areas where the orders might create additional obligations are requirements that the servicer establish a...

A provision in the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act allowing federal agencies that insure mortgage loans to develop rules defining “qualified mortgages” (QM) for their loans may not be ideal for investors, according to industry attorneys. In addition to a recent Federal Reserve proposed rule on ability to repay ...

Wall Street analysts said it is unlikely banks will take losses on repurchased delinquent FHA mortgage loans, easing fears that FHA may not fully reimburse those losses due to servicing errors. Commenting on a report challenging banks’ policy of accruing interest on delinquent FHA loans, analysts at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods said ...

Borrowers approved by the FHA to acquire real estate owned (REO) properties under the FHA’s “$100 Down” sales incentive will benefit from new guidance issued recently by the agency. Pre-approved borrowers under an FHA REO program requiring a minimal $100 cash investment may finance ...

Good news for mortgage brokers: the FHA has eliminated the statutory 1 percent origination cap on 203(k) rehabilitation mortgages. This means that loan originators may set and collect “fair, reasonable and customary fees and charges” above 1 percent for originating “fixer upper” mortgage ...

Issuers may now choose between two methods of compensating servicers of securities backed by Home Equity Conversion Mortgages under a new policy change announced recently by Ginnie Mae. The choices are either a monthly flat servicing fee of 6-to-75 basis points or ...

Ginnie Mae servicing continued to show strong growth as it posted a 4.0 percent jump in the first quarter of 2011 from the previous quarter and an overall 19.3 percent increase from the same period last year. The top 50 Ginnie servicers reported $1.11 trillion of single-family mortgage debt outstanding at the end of the... [Includes one data chart]

Several of the top mortgage servicers in the industry reported ongoing shrinkage in their portfolios during the first quarter of 2011, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance ranking. As a group, the top five servicers reported a 1.1 percent drop in their combined servicing operations from... [Includes one data chart]

After the subprime mortgage crisis, renting is looking more appealing than ever and reshaping the outlook for residential mortgage lending. During a recent conference hosted by the Urban Land Institute in Washington, DC, many panelists agreed that single-family housing is becoming less popular, and more people are looking to...

Mortgage origination activity dropped sharply in early 2011 and momentum is pointing toward further declines as the housing market limps into a new buying season. Mortgage lenders generated an estimated $325.0 billion in single-family originations during the first three months of the year, a decline of... [Includes two data charts]