There is nothing in the FHA guidelines that would make a loan ineligible for FHA insurance if the property were located near high-voltage power lines, according to an agency official. Testifying during a recent congressional field hearing, Bobbi Borland, acting branch chief of the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Santa Ana Homeownership Center, said FHA-insured mortgages are based on the property’s appraised value at the time of origination, as determined by an FHA-approved appraiser. “There is simply no easy way to identify whether ...

Ally Financial has announced a plan to reduce its purchases of government-backed loans from brokers and correspondents and shift its government financing activity to retail and direct channels. The lender informed its partners of its plan to reduce its FHA and VA operations in the correspondent and wholesale broker channels effective April 16. However, Ally will continue its correspondent relationships with key customers. In 2011, like most lenders, Ally focused on the agency market, with conventional conforming mortgage loans comprising ...

Combined servicing volume for the top 50 Ginnie Mae MBS servicers jumped to $1.23 billion in the first quarter of 2012 from $1.11 billion during the same period a year ago – an 11.2 percent increase on a year-over-year basis, according to the Inside Mortgage Finance MBS Database. The quarterly change was a modest 1.7 percent increase from $1.21 billion in the fourth quarter of 2011, data showed. Wells Fargo and Bank of America accounted for 53.5 percent of total Ginnie Mae servicing in the first quarter, with $361.1 million and $302.1 million, respectively. Year-over-year, top-ranked Wells Fargo (29.1 percent market share) saw a ... (1 chart)

MetLife, Inc. has announced that it is leaving the reverse mortgage business as part of a broader business plan to exit the mortgage market and focus strategically on global insurance and employee benefits. Nationstar Mortgage will purchase MetLife’s reverse mortgage servicing portfolio. MetLife Bank will no longer accept new reverse mortgage loan applications and registrations. MetLife’s entire retail banking business, including mortgages, accounted for less than 2.0 percent of the company’s 2011 operating earnings. Last year, the company decided to ...

The retooled Home Affordable Refinance Program may still be ramping up to full throttle, but frontline lenders say that HARP 2.0 is already proving to be a boon for their refi business with the promise of more to come, according to participants of an exclusive Inside Mortgage Finance webinar. Since January, one month after the revised program took effect, lenders have seen intense interest and a more significant uptick in new refinance applications. “HARP 2.0 has been a great opportunity for SunTrust Mortgage,” explained Tim McKeever, SunTrust’s strategic production manager. He noted that the bank this year has...

With the second-generation refinance program for underwater Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac borrowers gaining momentum in the market, Senate Democrats are drawing up new legislation designed to knock down lender reluctance about the Home Affordable Refinance Program. Legislation being drafted by Sens. Robert Menendez (NJ) and Barbara Boxer (CA) would force the government-sponsored enterprises to waive representations and warranties on new HARP loans regardless of whether the refi lender serviced the previous mortgage. Lingering concerns about reps and warranties exposure have caused many top lenders to...

Credit unions continue to nibble at the edges of a mortgage business dominated by large banks and finely tuned mortgage banking operations, but credit unions’ share of the market climbed to a record 7.36 percent in 2011, according to a new analysis and ranking by Inside Mortgage Finance. While most of the industry has fled to the highest ground in underwriting standards, credit unions have been more flexible lenders willing to hold mortgages on their balance sheets and originate loans that don’t conform to the secondary market. “Credit unions sell about 45 percent of...(Includes two data charts)

The troubled housing market saw some definite signs of improvement in the first quarter of 2012, a development that many mortgage lenders hope means that purchase-mortgage lending is finally ready to grow in 2012 following five years of declining volume. But tough mortgage underwriting requirements and even tougher lender overlays of additional standards are casting a dark shadow over the outlook for any significant surge in purchase-mortgage business this year. New numbers from the Campbell/Inside Mortgage Finance HousingPulse Tracking Survey show that the share of home purchases that were...

An ad hoc coalition of trade associations, housing and consumer advocates, and community groups urged the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau last week to craft a “qualified mortgage” rule that encompasses a wide range of mortgage products and underwriting practices to protect credit availability. The varied group, which included the Mortgage Bankers Association, the American Securitization Forum, Consumer Mortgage Coalition and American Bankers Association, acknowledged that its members hold different views about whether the QM should be designed as a safe harbor or a rebuttable presumption...

Even as it awaits the outcome of a government fair-lending investigation that it helped initiate, the National Community Reinvestment Coalition says the majority of lenders under review have reacted favorably but the widespread use of “credit overlays” remains a problem in the industry. In December 2010, the NCRC filed complaints with the Department of Housing and Urban Development after its investigation found that 22 lenders set minimum borrower credit scores as high as 640 for FHA loans, even though FHA guarantees loans to borrowers with scores as low as 580. The NCRC claims the credit...