The FHA will allow lenders to suspend foreclosures on properties backed by Home Equity Conversion Mortgage loans for up to 60 days to help non-borrowing spouses of deceased HECM borrowers temporarily avoid eviction and, possibly, foreclosure. The announcement of the policy came as a federal district court judge for the District of Columbia considered whether to certify a class-action case filed by four surviving spouses of HECM borrowers last month. The lawsuit alleges that HUD had failed to protect them from being displaced from their homes – the same protection HECM regulations extend to reverse mortgage borrowers. The suit accuses the department of violating the federal Administrative Procedures Act by promulgating contradictory regulations without public comment. Last September, a DC judge found HUD in violation of federal law in a similar case and ordered that the case ...

Ginnie Mae has held up for several weeks an $8 billion sale of servicing rights from Bank of America to a nonbank because of missing documents on government-backed mortgages. Ted Tozer, president of the agency, confirmed the delay in approvals to Inside FHA Lending, but declined to name the nonbank on the buy-side of the transaction. However, sources familiar with the deal identified the counter-party as PennyMac. BofA and PennyMac would not comment. Once the missing documents are located and placed in the proper files, the deal will move forward, said Tozer. Tozer noted that that in the past the agency did not lose sleep over large MSR transfers because up until three years ago the nation’s megabanks were buyers of MSRs. “We knew they had the financial strength to make the P&I [principal and interest] payments” to the MBS investors, he said. But with nonbank servicers, such as Green Tree, Nationstar Mortgage, Ocwen Financial as well as PennyMac, rapidly growing their portfolios, the agency is ...

FHA originations dropped a hefty 28.3 percent in February from January and 59.1 percent from the same period a year ago, according to Inside FHA Lending’s analysis of agency data. FHA lenders reported $8.2 billion in new forward mortgages for February, down from $11.4 billion for January and $19.5 billion from a year ago. Approximately 73.9 percent of the loans were purchase mortgages. Industry observers attributed the continuing decline in FHA production to multiple and costly insurance premium hikes, revocation of the borrower’s right to cancel premium payments during the term of the loan and rising interest rates. For the week ending April 18, the interest rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage with FHA insurance increased to 4.20 percent from 4.14 percent, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association weekly application survey. FHA officials said the policy changes were necessary to ... [1 chart]

Better performance on newer vintage FHA loans helped drive down the agency’s overall portfolio delinquency rate and fueled the decline in 30-, 60- and 90-day delinquencies during the first quarter of 2014, according to Inside FHA Lending’s analysis of FHA servicing data. Total delinquencies during the first quarter improved to 12.88 percent as of March 31 from 15.23 percent as of Dec. 31, 2013. The 30-60 day delinquency rate also fell to 5.41 percent from 7.14 percent, while the serious delinquencies (90 days or more past due) dropped modestly to 7.46 percent from 8.08 percent over the same period. The overall foreclosure rate, however, increased slightly to 2.36 percent during the first three months of 2014 from 2.30 percent at the end of 2013. FHA servicers ended the first quarter with ... [1 chart]

United Wholesale Mortgage is now offering jumbos on a wholesale basis with debt-to-income ratios as high as 49 percent allowed. The loans won’t receive protections for qualified mortgages as the DTI ratio limit for jumbo QMs is 43 percent. Loan amounts on United Wholesale’s Big & Easy Plus loan go up to $1.5 million. The lender said it will allow loan-to-value ratios on the mortgage of up to 75 percent while a borrower will need ... [Includes four briefs]

It’s now or never for Congress to pass legislation to reform the government-sponsored enterprises, according to Shaun Donovan, secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Industry analysts predict that Congress is highly unlikely to finish work on GSE reform this year, extending uncertainty in the mortgage market. The Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs is scheduled to markup GSE reform legislation next week ...

Industry participants are divided on whether legislation under consideration in Congress to reform the government-sponsored enterprises will help encourage an increase in private capital in the mortgage market. In a speech this week, Shaun Donovan, the secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, was adamant that the GSE reform bill from Sens. Tim Johnson, D-SD, and Mike Crapo, R-ID, will encourage non-agency investors to return to the mortgage market ...

A number of lenders have loosened their underwriting standards on non-agency products in recent months in an effort to boost originations as demand for refinances plummets. One of the boldest moves was taken by TD Bank, which this week announced a portfolio loan that has a downpayment requirement as low as 3 percent. The loan is part of the lender’s Right Step mortgage program which features low downpayment loans without private mortgage insurance ...

At one shop based in the Midwest there’s unconfirmed talk of loan officers who haven’t been paid for months, unpaid leases and top executives who were on vacation as volumes collapsed.

Government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are off to a solid start to the year in terms of their multifamily business in what is expected to be a more competitive year in 2014 than the market saw last year. Whether they can match last year’s levels is an open question. Fannie issued...[Includes one data chart]