A federal court ruling that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s structure is unconstitutional raises questions that similarly-structured agencies such as the Federal Housing Finance Agency could also be challenged. A DC Circuit Court judge in the PHH Corp. v. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau case ruled that the CFPB’s single-director structure was not constitutional because it lacked a multi-member board of directors and its sole director cannot be fired without cause. In court, lawyers from the CFPB called...

The Department of Housing and Urban Development’s inspector general urged the agency to revise regulations to avoid the possibility of another multi-billion dollar hit to the FHA insurance fund due to servicers missing their foreclosure or conveyance deadlines. According to a recent IG audit report, HUD paid approximately $2.23 billion in claims for an estimated 239,000 properties that missed foreclosure and conveyance deadlines. In particular, HUD paid an estimated $141.9 million for servicers’ claims for “unreasonable and unnecessary” debenture interest as well as $2.09 billion in servicer claims for holding costs incurred after the deadlines for foreclosure or conveyance had lapsed, the report said. Because of these exorbitant claims payments, the FHA’s Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund became...

With Hispanics predicted to make up more than half of all new households formed between 2020 and 2030, their relatively low homeownership rate should be a growing concern in the mortgage market, according to the Urban Institute. In 2013, just 45 percent of Hispanic households owned their homes compared with 71 percent of whites, said UI researchers Jim Parrott and Yamillet Payano. “If one were to hold those rates constant as Hispanics become an increasing percentage of the pool of homebuyers, the homeownership rate would drop precipitously, causing considerable economic upheaval,” they said. Credit score is...

Based on mortgage production figures reported by the five largest banks with substantial involvement in the residential home loan market, third-quarter originations likely rose about 10 percent from the previous period. Five bank mortgage lenders – Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, U.S. Bank and Citigroup – reported a combined $135.5 billion in home loan production during the third quarter. That was up a respectable 9.0 percent from the second quarter. But during the second quarter, their combined production jumped 30.0 percent from the first three months of the year. However, the five major banks have...[Includes one data table]

Back in August, Incenter Mortgage Advisors auctioned off one of the largest bulk packages of Ginnie Mae servicing rights in quite some time: An $8.87 billion pool of receivables…

If rates rise enough, will refis fall by 50 percent?

At Sept. 30, U.S. Bank held $56.2 billion of first and second liens in portfolio, a 7.7 percent improvement from the same period a year earlier.

Meanwhile, loan brokers tended to originate larger loans, averaging $264,646 for purchase mortgages…

“Community bank regulators have taken a diagnostic approach with TRID compliance, which has been positive,” said ICBA’s Ron Haynie.

Fannie Mae’s Connecticut Avenue Securities program and Freddie Mac’s Structured Agency Credit Risk program have accounted for the bulk of GSE activity since the CRT initiative was launched three years ago.