As of press time, Congress passed a one-week stopgap spending measure to keep the government open through May 5, averting a looming government shutdown. The House passed H.J. Res. 99 by a vote of 373 to 30. The continuing resolution has been sent to President Trump. The continuing resolution provides lawmakers sufficient time to negotiate an omnibus spending bill. The previous spending bill was scheduled to expire at midnight, April 28, which would have resulted in a government shutdown similar to the one that paralyzed the federal government in 2013. A shutdown can cause grief for sellers and homebuyers and severely delay processing of mortgage loans if lenders cannot verify a borrower’s tax data or Social Security number. This time, however, the FHA and VA are prepared for such an eventuality, said industry observers. A 16-day government shutdown in October 2013 sent millions of ...

Millions of disabled post-9/11 veterans may qualify for a VA-guaranteed home mortgage but the majority are not taking advantage of the program, according to a new report from American Financing. The VA loan is great for injured veterans exiting the military but many are either unaware or uninformed, said Greg Vogel, manager of American Financing in Aurora, CO. Active-duty servicemembers and retired military are entitled to VA housing benefits, including an agency guarantee on their mortgage in lieu of mortgage insurance and no downpayment. A first-time VA borrower pays a 2.15 percent funding fee. Borrowers with a service-connected disability are exempt from paying the fee. “You would expect many of our injured warriors would take advantage of this great loan but that’s not what the numbers indicate,” said Vogel, who left the Army as a disabled vet Tim Byers, a mortgage analyst at ...

President Trump Friday morning signaled his intent to nominate former regulator Pamela Patenaude to be the next deputy secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development. According to a bio listed on the White House website, Patenaude is president of the J. Ronald Terwilliger Foundation for Housing America’s Families. She also served as HUD assistant secretary for community, planning and development during the George W. Bush administration. Patenaude’ s nomination had been expected for some time. She is expected to play a key role in shaping housing policy in the new administration and brings to the table a depth of knowledge about the industry. HUD Secretary Ben Carson was a career brain surgeon with little in the way of housing and mortgage experience. Meanwhile, industry lobbyists contend the White House continues to vet candidates for two other ...

MUFG Union Bank of California, which relies heavily on jumbos, saw loan production fall on a sequential basis by just 4.4 percent, the best showing among the top 50, Inside Mortgage Finance found.

Other servicing-related issues identified include premature foreclosure filings, mishandling of escrow accounts, incomplete periodic statements and dual tracking.

Chuck Klein of Mortgage Banking Solutions said M&A activity is “hopping along pretty good these days.”

The VA Loan Guaranty Service wants to hear from stakeholders…

The range on the flow or co-issuance arrangement is $35 million to $50 million per month.

Production of new first-lien home mortgages fizzled in the first quarter of 2017 as the bottom fell out of the refinance market and home sales slumbered, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance ranking and analysis. An estimated $385.0 billion of new first-lien mortgages were originated in the first three months of the year, a 33.6 percent downturn from the fourth quarter of 2016. It likely did not mark the end of the world, however. For starters, the fourth quarter of last year surprised on the upside – at $580.0 billion, it was the second-highest quarterly volume in the previous four years. And the start of 2017 was...[Includes two data tables]

In general, 2016 was a banner year for loan production with some publicly traded nonbanks turning in their best results ever – and thus rewarding their top executives handsomely. According to an analysis of available proxy statements by Inside Mortgage Finance, Penny Mac Financial Servicers founder and Executive Chairman Stanford Kurland was the industry’s top earner at $9.12 million in 2016. His firm – the nation’s number-four ranked originator – had a good year: net income of $336 million, a 26.0 percent improvement from the year before. Back in 2015, Kurland took...[Includes one data table]