The FHA has issued temporary guidelines to ease the condominium approval process and increase the number of condo projects eligible for FHA financing. The guidelines take effect immediately and will be in place for one year to give FHA enough time to write and implement a more comprehensive rule. With the issuance of the guidelines, FHA anticipates an increase in the pool of FHA-eligible condo projects, which in turn will provide more affordable housing options for first-time and low- to moderate-income borrowers. The interim guidelines modify three key areas where lender complaints have been common. First, the guidelines revise requirements for recertification of condo projects. FHA-approved condo projects require recertification after two years to ensure that the project is still in ...
Freddie Mac is preparing to sell its second “Whole Loan Securities” transaction, according to a presale report from Moody’s Investors Service. The planned $634.64 million deal will be structured like a non-agency mortgage-backed security with senior tranches and subordinate tranches. Unlike the first deal from the government-sponsored enterprise, the planned issuance received ratings on some of the subordinate tranches. The unrated senior ... [Includes three briefs]
Ocwen Financial continues to work toward satisfying regulatory requirements that would allow the nonbank to resume acquisitions of mortgage servicing rights. However, officials stress that MSR acquisitions aren’t the main focus for the company. “Right now, I don’t see in the marketplace a lot of opportunities for the kind of servicing transfers that would interest Ocwen and that’s why we’re focusing more of our efforts on generating new assets ... [Includes one data chart]
Originations of nonprime loans that don’t meet standards for qualified mortgages are beginning to ramp up while still accounting for a small share of total origination volume. Impac Mortgage Holdings, one of the most prominent originators of non-QMs, has posted sharp growth since starting to offer the loans in the third quarter of 2014. Impac originated $48.0 million in non-QMs in the third quarter of 2015, more than double the $22.3 million in non-QM originations the lender had ...
It would take a significant increase in interest rates to diminish bank demand for holding originations of jumbo mortgages in portfolio, according to industry analysts. Analysts at Bank of America Merrill Lynch said higher interest rates could eventually shift the economics in favor of banks securitizing their jumbo production and buying back the AAA tranches of the mortgage-backed securities rather than owning the whole loans on their balance sheet. “While it is tough to ...
The interim guidelines modify three key areas where lender-complaints have been common, including a revision to the calculation of the owner-occupancy ratio.
The Federal Home Loan Banks appear to be eyeing a bigger share of the government-backed lending market with the announcement of a new servicing-release option for FHA, VA and rural housing loans sold into the Mortgage Partnership Finance program. The addition of a servicing-released option from Nationstar Mortgage, a top-10 mortgage servicer, to an already existing servicing-retained execution will give participating lenders greater flexibility in pricing and selling government-backed mortgages they have originated into the secondary market, said Matt Feldman, president of the Chicago FHLB. Previously, program participants were required...
The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association recently filed an amicus brief in support of the defendants to reverse a case in which the Federal Housing Finance Agency argued that Nomura Holdings sold shoddy MBS to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. In the case of FHFA vs. Nomura Holdings, a judge ruled in May, after a three-week bench trial, that Nomura and RBS Securities were liable for the claims brought by the FHFA and knowingly sold bad MBS to the government-sponsored enterprises before the 2008 financial crisis. The MBS were backed by mortgages with an unpaid principal balance of about $2.05 billion at the time of purchase. Nomura appealed...
The authors want the Treasury Department to end the quarterly profit sweep and allow Fannie and Freddie to raise about $100 billion in additional capital through several rounds of new common stock sales...
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