Industry stakeholders are calling for changes to some of the mortgage- and housing-related provisions in the House Republicans’ proposed tax reform bill. On Nov. 9, 2017, the House Ways and Means Committee passed H.R. 1, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, retaining provisions that may significantly reduce homeownership tax incentives. At the same time, Senate Republicans unveiled their tax reform package, which limits the mortgage interest deduction, eliminates state and local tax deductions and nearly doubles the standard deduction, among other provisions. The Mortgage Bankers Association, National Association of Realtors and the National Association of Home Builders each had a list of concerns but were uniformly opposed to proposed changes to the mortgage-interest deduction. Among other things, the bill would cap the mortgage-interest deduction (MID) at $500,000 for new ...
FHA lenders think the new Loan Review System is a “modern and streamlined system” that is less user-friendly than Neighborhood Watch, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. In a letter to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the MBA called on the FHA to continue its ongoing discussion with lenders and other industry stakeholders on how the improve the LRS and its response timelines. Implemented last May, the LRS is an electronic platform for monitoring and reviewing the quality of single-family mortgages that FHA has insured. It replaced the post-endorsement technical review performed by the FHA Connection/Underwriting Review System (URS), review functions for post-closing test cases submitted by direct endorsement lenders, and lender self-reporting functions in Neighborhood Watch. The LRS also includes a defect taxonomy, which features a list of ...
Targeted reform of the FHA housing program, not broad structural changes, can potentially improve borrowers’ access to credit while clarifying the rules for lenders and protecting taxpayers, a top industry executive told Congress earlier this month. Testifying before the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Housing and Insurance, David Stevens, president and CEO of the Mortgage Bankers Association, said FHA reforms do not entail changes to the program’s scope, such as FHA market share or its customer base. Stevens noted that first time or low- to moderate-income borrowers are typical FHA borrowers. “The structure and coverage of FHA insurance has served borrowers and lenders well,” he said. “It should not be reduced or otherwise altered.” The Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund capital ratios and thresholds are likewise appropriate, though options to improve the fund’s long-term solvency should ...
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has issued guidance for conducting its mandated five-year review to identify areas that no longer qualify as rural for housing programs. For purposes of establishing eligibility to participate in USDA direct and indirect single-family housing guaranteed programs, “rural” and “rural area” are defined as “any open country, or any place, town, village or city which is not part or associated with an urban area.” To be designated as rural or rural area, the area must have a population not exceeding 2,500 inhabitants or a population of more than 2,500 up to 10,000, “if it is rural in character.” An area with more than 10,000 inhabitants up to 20,000 may be classified as rural if it is not within a standard metropolitan statistical area and “has a serious lack of credit for lower and middle-income families, as determined by the [USDA] secretary or the secretary of the ...
A spokesman described the new product as “an additional feature not unlike private mortgage insurance” although he refuses to call it an insurance policy…
Private mortgage insurers remained busy during the third quarter of 2017, but the VA loan guar-anty sector saw the biggest growth in primary MI business, a new Inside Mortgage Finance ranking and analysis reveals.
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