FHA production of mortgages with loan amounts exceeding $417,000 rose to $4.8 billion during the first three months of 2012, according to Inside FHA Lending’s analysis of FHA data. The FHA posted a significant 21.1 percent increase in agency jumbo production from the fourth quarter of 2011, offsetting the 17.9 percent drop in production year over year. The agency’s maximum loan limit remained at $729,750 in high-cost areas while those of its competitors, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, were at the lower $625,500. Purchase loans accounted for 42.4 percent of FHA jumbo originations in ... [1 chart]

Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the FHA generated a record $28.79 billion in conforming jumbo business – mortgages with loan amounts exceeding $417,000 – during the first three months of 2012, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance analysis of loan-level data. The surge in agency jumbo production – up 34.7 percent from the fourth quarter – exceeded the 14.1 percent jump in overall Fannie, Freddie and FHA business. Conforming jumbo loans accounted for 7.5 percent of the $384.83 billion in securitization and mortgage insurance business done by the agencies in the first...(Includes three data charts)

Surging streamline refinancing activity is helping boost FHA lending but the benefits of increased originations may be restricted to financial institutions that have the ability to retain servicing and are not dependent on selling FHA loans to larger banks, according to some lenders. Applications for government-insured refinance loans more than doubled last week as reduced mortgage insurance premiums for the FHA streamline refinances went into effect, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s latest survey of mortgage applications. The MBA’s government refinance index jumped from 4010 last week to...

The Federal Housing Finance Agency should address Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s representation and warranties repurchase demands with an eye toward making the two government-sponsored enterprises’ buyback policies more transparent, industry groups say. The volume of repurchase demands by the GSEs continues at “unprecedented levels” as Fannie and Freddie made nearly $100 billion in repurchase demands over the past three years, the Mortgage Bankers Association said in a comment letter on the FHFA’s strategy for GSE conservatorship. “MBA supports lender reps and warrants as an effective method of...

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has been able to identify a number of improvements it can make in a rulemaking that will merge the consumer mortgage disclosures required under the Truth in Lending Act and the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act, thanks to input from a small business review panel it convened earlier this year. “During the small business review panel [process] and our other outreach, industry identified several areas in which the current rules create uncertainty about how to comply,” CFPB Deputy Director Raj Date said during a hearing of the House Financial Services Subcommittee on...

A number of mortgage lending and small business interest groups want the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to use the extra time provided by re-opening the public comment process on the controversial ability-to-repay rulemaking to conduct a Small Business Advocacy Review panel and publish its recommendations when the agency issues the final rule. “We recognize that the CFPB was not legally required to conduct an SBAR panel since the rulemaking was transferred to the CFPB after the proposed rule stage,” the groups said in a letter to the bureau last week. However, given the potentially significant...

While Nationstar Mortgage was named by the bankruptcy court as the stalking horse for Residential Capital’s mortgage servicing rights and origination platform, Berkshire Hathaway ousted parent company Ally Financial as the lead bidder for ResCap’s loan portfolio. Nationstar outbid Berkshire Hathaway for the mortgage banking business with a revised $2.45 billion bid that was $125 million higher than it originally offered when the bankruptcy plan was announced, and it also lowered its breakup fee to $24 million. In the initial bankruptcy plan with Ally and ResCap, Nationstar would have collected a $72...

The official watchdog of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s government regulator announced last week it will conduct a “proactive audit and evaluation strategy” of the two government-sponsored enterprises’ real estate owned management policies, as well as the REO oversight efforts of the Federal Housing Finance Agency. “FHFA has a crucial responsibility to ensure that the enterprises manage their REO inventories so as to minimize costs and mitigate the negative effects that foreclosed properties can have on the communities in which they are located,” said the Office of the Inspector General. “Given the...

As New York announced a $60 million program to help struggling homeowners, winning accolades from the Department of Housing and Urban Development for its use of the foreclosure settlement money, other states continue to plug budget holes with their settlement gains. The Empire State’s Homeowner Protection Program will fund housing counseling and legal services using some of the $107.6 million allotted the state through the multistate servicing and foreclosure settlement. HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan called it a “national model” for how states should use their settlement money. NY Attorney...

The Federal Housing Finance Agency should continue projects already underway to create more uniformity in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac operations and extend those efforts to reduce the liquidity gap in the MBS issued by the two government-sponsored enterprises, a key Wall Street group said. Giving priority to the alignment of Fannie and Freddie operations will “set the stage for the longer-term future of the enterprises and mortgage finance in this country more broadly, including non-agency securitization,” said the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association. Recent FHFA projects to standardize...