The Secure and Fair Enforcement for Mortgage Licensing Act of 2008 covers loan originators working for entities that originate FHA or VA mortgage loans, according to a final rule issued by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Under the long-anticipated rule on state compliance with the SAFE Act, HUD clarified that even though the FHA and VA programs were created by federal statute and governed by federal regulations, the loans they insure or guarantee are originated for profit. Since FHA and VA loans are originated in the “commercial context,” the loan originators (LOs) are generally subject to the requirements of...

The FHA has clarified its approval and recertification process and policies for condominium projects in newly revised guidelines. Guidance in Mortgagee Letter 2011-22 formalizes and expands policies Ginnie Mae put in place in 2009 and lays the groundwork for a formal rulemaking later this year. The mortgagee letter includes a condominium policy guide and implementation schedule laying out timelines for compliance. The revised guidelines “preserve FHA’s role in the condo market during these difficult times while making certain we manage risks in a responsible way,’ said FHA Acting Commissioner Robert Ryan. Overall, the mortgagee letter and guide spell out...

FHA jumbo originations took a 32.2 percent tumble during the first quarter of 2011 yet remained strong enough when combined with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s jumbo numbers to beat non-agency jumbo originations for the quarter, according to a new Inside FHA Lending ranking and analysis. FHA, Fannie and Freddie accounted for $26.15 billion, or 15.7 percent, of all jumbo loans – those exceeding $417,000 – originated in the first quarter, compared to $25.0 billion in new non-agency jumbo loans produced during the same period, data from Inside Mortgage Finance show. During the first quarter, FHA jumbo production fell to... [Includes two data charts]

The Department of Housing and Urban Development is planning to update the FHA TOTAL Scorecard automated scoring system. FHA has been studying other possible changes in how TOTAL is used for managing the credit risk of new insurance, according to a HUD spokesman. “We anticipate making changes in the coming months,” he said, without elaborating. TOTAL is a system that provides feedback to approved lenders on what the FHA considers acceptable risk, apart from manual underwriting review. The system has been operating since May 2004 and mandatory for all loans, except non-streamline refinance actions, since July 2008. The system has...

The FHA’s mortgage insurance portfolio continues to improve despite lingering uncertainty in housing prices, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s latest quarterly report to Congress. HUD gave the FHA Single-Family Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund a cautious thumbs up in its FY 2011 second-quarter report as the fund surpassed earlier actuarial forecasts halfway through the fiscal year. There was mostly encouraging news from several fronts. HECM endorsements were up 12 percent during the quarter and 2 percent on a year-over-year basis. Forward mortgage loans endorsements, which totaled 285,725, were down 23 percent from...

Any reform proposal determining the future of the secondary mortgage market must retain, in some reduced but meaningful form, key features and principles that give all lenders equal access to the secondary mortgage market, according to industry representatives and policy advocates. Testifying before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs this week, community bankers and credit union industry representatives expressed their concern about a proposal to have some of the largest mortgage lenders replace Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac if the government-sponsored enterprises were ...

Although more than half of the mortgage loans being produced in the U.S. get passed through the top three loan aggregators in the industry, thousands of smaller depository institutions and mortgage brokers continue to find a foothold in the industry. A new Inside Mortgage Finance ranking of the top 100 mortgage originators reveals scores of lenders that produced less than $1 billion in new originations during the first quarter. Some 1,635 different mortgagees were identified in FHA lending data for the first quarter, and more than 550 companies delivered ... [includes two data charts]

Bank of America’s commitment to set aside $20.4 billion to address a big chunk of its exposure to the mortgage debacle it acquired when it bought Countrywide Financial may point toward evolving new servicing standards for the industry at large. But officials acknowledge that it’s hard to estimate the risk of future buyback costs, especially as the policies of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac continue to change and other litigation – including nego-tiations with state attorneys general – is still pending. BofA agreed to pay $8.5 billion to settle representations and warranties claims and ...

The home purchase mortgage market remained anemic in May as many would-be homebuyers remained on the sidelines for the start of the historically stronger summer home purchase season. And to make matters worse, a combination of tough mortgage underwriting and a high level of distressed properties continued to push up cash sales. According to new numbers released by the Campbell/Inside Mortgage Finance HousingPulse Tracking Survey, cash sales accounted for 31.3 percent of the home purchase transactions in May. That was up from 30.1 percent in April and represented the ... [includes one graph]

Housing industry groups are making a noisy push to persuade policymakers to postpone (perhaps permanently) a planned reduction in the high-cost loan limits for Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the FHA due to expire this fall. Late last week, the National Association of Home Builders released a study which concluded that an Oct. 1 reduction in the loan limits “will reduce housing demand and place downward pressure on home prices in major housing markets.” In February, the White House proposed to “shrink the government’s footprint” in housing finance and lure back ...