The Department of Housing and Urban Development said it expects to issue guidance by the end of the month clarifying which mortgage loans would qualify for the higher loan limits. A department spokesman said the guidance is in its last phase of departmental clearance and contains detailed information on which loans are eligible for the higher loan limits as well as additional requirements for using the higher loan limits. Unless Congress intervenes, the current high-cost area loan limit, which is set temporarily at 125 percent of the median house price in each area up to a maximum of $729,750, will be replaced on Oct. 1 by a...

Bank of America is in the process of contacting 57,000 seriously delinquent FHA borrowers to determine who would qualify for special loss mitigation options under a recent settlement agreement with the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Previously undisclosed, the settlement was confirmed by HUD officials, who declined to give further details about what led up to the agreement. A BofA spokesman said a HUD inquiry into the bank’s servicing practices found that 38 percent of the 1.5 million FHA mortgage loans currently serviced by BofA were delinquent but have not been offered loss mitigation options in accordance with...

Bank of America is currently sitting on $1.4 billion of real estate it acquired upon foreclosure of delinquent FHA-insured loans. The properties are not included in BofA’s inventory of foreclosed properties at June 30, 2011, but remain on the bank’s balance sheet until they are conveyed to the FHA, the bank disclosed in its 2Q11 filings. BofA expects to be reimbursed once the properties are transferred to the FHA for principal and, up to a certain limit, costs incurred during the foreclosure process and interest incurred during the holding period. The bank suspended its foreclosure activities in October 2010 as it began a...

Small FHA-approved lenders no longer have to submit audited financial statements to the Department of Housing and Urban Development in order to be approved or renewed for FHA programs, according to new guidelines issued July 28. Under Mortgagee Letter 2011-25, small supervised lenders regulated by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., National Credit Union Administration or the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency are exempt from current regulation requiring all FHA lenders to submit annual audited financial statements as a condition for their approval or continued participation in FHA programs. Currently, the regulation applies to...

A federal district court in Dallas dismissed a civil lawsuit against the Department of Housing and Urban Development and HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan because the plaintiff, a mortgage lender and servicer, lacked standing to bring suit. U.S. District Court Judge Barbara Lynn for the Northern District of Texas, however, gave American Home Mortgage Servicing, Inc. (AHMSI) another opportunity to amend and refile its complaint. Ruling against AHMSI on standing, Lynn never got to the core of the complaint, which accused HUD of failing to pay insurance claims submitted by AHMSI on 161 defaulted FHA-insured mortgage loans, which it serviced. AHMSI claimed...

New FHA guidelines for the condominium insurance program could potentially exclude financially sound condo associations from the FHA program, warned an advocacy group for condominium communities. The apparent lack of transparency has raised concerns about the criteria FHA used in developing guidelines for the condo program and new provisions in a mortgagee letter issued by the Department of Housing and Urban Development in June, according to the Community Associations Institute. The CAI said the FHA continued to create unnecessary obstacles for qualified condo buyers by developing requirements without prior notice or...

The FHA has announced changes to help ensure prompt, accurate and consistent responses to industry and public inquiries about FHA matters. The new primary electronic mail address and Internet site of the FHA Resource Center, which includes a Frequently-Asked-Questions site, will be easier to remember and access, according to the FHA. The new email address is answers@hud.gov, which replaced the previous info@fhaoutreach.com. The site address for the FHA FAQ site will change from www.fhaoutreach.gov/FHAFAQ to www.hud.gov/answers. Users should begin using the new addresses exclusively on Aug. 15, according to the FHA. The primary...

The zero risk weight for Ginnie Mae mortgage-backed securities remains despite Standard & Poor’s recent lowering of the long-term rating of the U.S. government and federal agencies from AAA to AA+ and affirmation of the A-1+ short-term rating, according to federal regulators. The rating agency also removed both the short- and long-term ratings from CreditWatch, where they have been since July 14 with negative implications. On August 5, federal banking and credit union regulators announced that, for risk-based capital purposes, the risk weights for Treasury securities and securities guaranteed by...

Short of a market miracle, the chances of other Ginnie Mae mortgage-backed securities servicers catching up with market leaders Wells Fargo and Bank of America are practically nil. Wells Fargo and BofA appear to have a solid lock on 55.0 percent of Ginnie Mae servicing outstanding based on a combined portfolio total of $634.0 billion at the end of June. Overall, the supply of Ginnie Mae servicing grew 3.8 percent during the second quarter. Wells Fargo commanded a 28.2 percent share of Ginnie Mae servicing during the second quarter, up 4.7 percent from the first quarter. Not far behind is second-ranked BofA with a 26.6 percent share, thanks to... [Includes one data chart]

Private mortgage insurers took heavy losses during the second quarter of 2011 but managed to recover some market share that had been lost earlier in the year to the FHA, according to a new analysis and ranking by Inside Mortgage Finance. Overall, mortgage lenders originated $82.70 billion of home loans with primary mortgage insurance coverage during the second quarter, down 11.6 percent from the first three months of the year. That was measurably better than the 18.5 percent sag in total mortgage originations, however, and it lifted the primary MI share of new business to ... [contains four data charts]