Buoyed by a surge in new business written and profitability, private mortgage insurers outpaced government-backed mortgage insurance programs in the second quarter of 2018. The six active private MIs wrote primary insurance on $80.3 billion of newly originated home loans during the second quarter, up 37.5 percent from the previous quarter and represented the industry’s best results since the fourth quarter of 2007. At the end of the second quarter, private MIs accounted for 38.7 percent of the primary MI market. FHA and VA saw their shares fall slightly to 34.8 percent and 24.5 percent, respectively. Private MIs saw increased activity in the purchase-mortgage business with the six firms combining for $75.7 billion of new purchase mortgages during the second quarter, up 47.3 percent from the first three months of the year. FHA purchase-mortgage business was also up by 33.0 percent during the ...

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Housing Service is considering whether to modify the maximum interest rate charged on single-family rural mortgages with a USDA guarantee. The RHS, which administers the USDA’s guaranteed rural housing program, is seeking public input on how establishing a maximum interest rate could affect lending to potential borrowers. The agency is also seeking comments on how the maximum rate could be modified to help those rural folks who could not obtain a conventional loan become homeowners, finance housing repairs and rehabilitation costs in relation to a home purchase, and refinance an existing USDA loan to lower the rate. The USDA Section 502 Handbook defines the maximum allowable interest rate as “the current Fannie Mae posted yield for 90-day delivery (Actual/Actual), plus one percent for 30-year fixed-rate, conventional loans, rounded up to the ...

An undetermined defect is causing the Department of Veterans Affairs’ loan servicing reporting system to spit out duplicate bill-of-collection transaction numbers. The VA Home Loan Guaranty staff is collaborating with the Administrative Loan and Accounting Center (ALAC) to work around the issue. The resolution to correct the defect in the VA Loan Electronic Reporting Interface (VALERI) application is scheduled to be included in the 18.4 VALERI release on Dec. 8, 2018. VALERI is in the first phase of a three-year project to convert from a system for reporting and storing servicing data to an end-to-end mortgage-processing platform. The VA also has issued a number of servicing alerts and reminders. Liquidation appraisal fees in Colorado will increase in certain counties effective Sept. 1, 2018, so that all counties will have the same fee per property type. The fee changes will be updated and reflected on the ...

Michael Bright Clears First Hurdle to Becoming President of GNMA. The Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs this week voted to confirm Michael Bright as president of Ginnie Mae. Bright’s confirmation is broadly positive for housing, said Jaret Seiberg, financial services and housing policy analyst for Cowen Washington Research Group. Bright is a former staffer for Sen. Bob Corker, R-TN, and has a history of working well with Republicans and Democrats, said Seiberg. In addition, he has worked closely with Sen. Elizabeth Warren in cracking down on loan churning, he added. The Mortgage Bankers Association welcomed the news. “Mr. Bright would bring significant experience within the mortgage industry and on Capitol Hill to the role of Ginnie Mae president,” said Bill Kilmer, the group’s chief lobbyist. “He has demonstrated a commitment to bipartisan solutions regarding complex ...

Both government-sponsored enterprises are comfortably within the maximum $250.0 billion mortgage portfolios they are permitted to have under the terms of their conservatorship.

Guild noted that unlike other low-down payment programs, the 3.0 percent downpayment can be funded by a gift.

Borrowers cited “best interest rate” as the reason they went with a particular lender in only 2.0 percent of purchase-mortgage transactions and 6.0 percent of refinances.

“After carefully evaluating market conditions and consumer needs, we are reducing to better align with current volumes,” Wells said.

Originations of expanded-credit mortgages failed to keep pace with total first-lien originations in the second quarter, according to a new ranking and analysis by Inside Nonconforming Markets. An estimated $11.40 billion of expanded-credit mortgages were originated in the second quarter, a 12.9 percent increase from the previous quarter. Total first-lien production increased by 17.1 percent during that time, according to Inside Mortgage Finance. Expanded ... [Includes one data chart]

Aggregators of jumbo mortgages have seen margins on their business decline as competition increases for the loans. Redwood Trust had $9.0 million in net income from its residential mortgage banking segment in the second quarter of 2018, down from $21.0 million in the previous period. Officials said the decline was due to lower margins during the second quarter. The real estate investment trust didn’t disclose specific figures other than to note that during the second quarter ...