The Department of Veterans Affairs is warning VA lenders to adhere strictly to the agency’s requirements for safe potable water for veteran homebuyers. The agency recently provided clarification and guidance concerning the testing of private, individual water-supply systems for properties backed by VA mortgage loans. The VA has long treated potable water as a health and safety issue, including as part of its minimum property requirements that water used for drinking, washing and other in-house uses must be safe for consumption. According to the guidance, which went into effect on July 19, 2017, a disinterested third party must perform all water testing. This includes the collection and transport of water samples from the supply source. Only the local health authority, a commercial testing laboratory, a licensed sanitary engineer, or any other party that is acceptable to the local health agency may test ...
The House Appropriations Committee has recommended $50 million to fund the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s FY 2018 housing counseling assistance to homebuyers, homeowners and low and moderate-income renters. The allocation is $3 million more than the Trump administration had requested and $5 million below the amount appropriated for housing counseling in fiscal year 2017. In its budget report, the committee noted the continued improvement in the economy, which has resulted in fewer foreclosures. Foreclosure filings from 2016 were reported on 933,000 properties, representing a 10-year low and a 14 percent reduction from 2015, the report pointed out. “The foreclosure rate has stayed within a historically normal range for three years, even with the pipeline of legacy foreclosures resulting from the housing bubble,” it said. In addition, the bill retains language that ...
Affordability and job availability are driving millennials to seek homes in more affordable markets, particularly in the upper Midwest, according to Ellie Mae data for the month of May. Ellie Mae’s Millennial Tracker, which monitors millennial mortgage applications during specific times, found that the higher percentages of loans made to millennial borrowers are in Hutchinson and Austin, MN, and Wahpeton and Williston, ND. Anniston-Oxford-Jacksonville, AL, rounded out the top-five markets. Ellie Mae defines millennials as applicants born between 1980 and 1999. Data showed that 48 percent of millennial borrowers who closed loans in May were single. In Hutchinson, for example, the majority of borrowers were single men. “This suggests millennials may be embracing homeownership in these areas for reasons other than what we have historically seen, which was family formation,” explained ...
Bipartisan Flood Bill Introduced in Senate. The Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs will soon consider a bipartisan bill introduced this week that would keep the National Flood Insurance Program funded for six more years and create new risk mitigation procedures for communities to follow.Senate Banking Committee Chairman Mike Crapo, R-ID, and ranking Democrat Sherrod Brown, OH, said the bill would serve as a template for consideration by the whole committee. The Senate bill does not include core provisions in the House version, including the development of a private flood insurance market to complement the NFIP. In addition, the bill does not call for cuts in the reimbursement rate for Write-Your-Own flood-insurance carriers that service NFIP policies. However, amendments are likely, according to Crapo and Brown. Meanwhile, the ...
The lender/servicer suffered another blow this spring when it revealed that some of its previously issued financial statements could not be relied upon because of what it called an “accounting error.”
The supply of single-family mortgage-backed securities issued by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae grew by 0.5 percent during the second quarter, according to an exclusive analysis and ranking by Inside Mortgage Finance. Total agency MBS outstanding rose to $6.258 trillion at the end of June, which does not include whole loans held in Fannie and Freddie portfolios or government-insured loans repurchased from Ginnie pools. The market was 4.2 percent bigger than it was at the midway point in 2016. Ginnie continues...[Includes two data tables]
The nation’s megabanks have started reporting second-quarter results, revealing a mixed bag when it comes to residential originations, according to a new analysis from Inside Mortgage Finance. The nation’s largest home lender, Wells Fargo, so far, has turned in the strongest performance of the group, funding $56.0 billion of product, a handsome 27.3 percent improvement from the first quarter of the year. Bank of America held its own with a 15.8 percent sequential improvement and U.S. Bank hiked its production game by a more modest 10.2 percent. And then there are...[Includes one data table]
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