Improving house prices and increased availability of private mortgage insurance should provide greater opportunity to FHA borrowers to refinance to conventional loans, according to a recent report from Barclays Research. FHA annual mortgage insurance premiums are set to go up another 10 basis points on April 1 for most loans, except mortgages originated before June 2009 that are being refinanced through FHA’s streamline refi program. Those loans pay just 1 basis point in upfront premium and 55 bps in annual premiums. The most recent available data – through November 2012 – show...
Adherents of a global tax proposal that would help countries raise revenue and make the financial sector pay for its fair share of crisis costs are calling on the U.S. for support. But first, the U.S. must overcome its fear of the “financial transaction tax,” or FTT, before this controversial tax option can be adopted globally, according to panelists in a forum hosted this week by the Center for American Progress. The CAP believes the tax is a “smart policy tool” that is both a revenue raiser and a stabilizer of volatile financial markets. The FTT is...
The Federal Reserve is open to the idea of making the "qualified residential mortgage" definition in the pending risk-retention rule the same as that of the "qualified mortgage" standard.
The mortgage industry wants the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to clarify whether mortgages subject to repurchase demands will lose their “qualified mortgage” status under the bureau’s new ability-to-repay rule.
RSS