Funding for a federal program providing guarantees to mortgage loans to Native Americans and other indigenous peoples has been spared from mandatory budget cuts under a temporary budget measure signed into law by President Obama last month. The Department of Housing and Urban Development has resumed accepting new loan applications under the Section 184 Indian Home Loan Guarantee Program. The mortgage product is for American Indian and Alaska Native families, Alaskan tribal members and tribally designated housing entities. Congress established the program in 1992 to ...

Four private mortgage insurance companies this week agreed to pay $15.4 million in penalties to resolve government charges that they improperly paid kickbacks to mortgage lenders for business referrals in violation of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau filed complaints and proposed consent orders against Genworth Mortgage Insurance Corp., Radian Guaranty, Inc., Mortgage Guaranty Insurance Corp. and United Guaranty Corp. for the alleged illegal business practices that contributed to the financial crisis. The CFPB said the MI companies engaged in illegal ...

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s rural housing program finances only modest homes for low- to moderate-income borrowers, not properties for millionaires as alleged in a news account published by Reuters, according to the program’s top executive. “USDA continues to operate its housing programs under the law and in accordance with the will of Congress,” said Tammye Trevino, administrator of the USDA Rural Housing Programs. Trevino disputed the Reuters report, which claimed that the USDA had guaranteed loans to “dozens of millionaires” by backing at least 500 loans of $500,000 or more, including more than ...

Consumer complaints about mortgage foreclosure relief and debt management services providers were fewer in 2012 than in 2011, according to the Federal Trade Commission. In the FTC’s annual report listing the top consumer complaints for the past year, mortgage foreclosure relief and debt management dropped to #15 (33,791 complaints) in 2012 from #13 (38,140 complaints) in 2011. For the 13th year in a row, identity theft complaints topped the list, representing 18 percent of all consumer complaints. Complaints about real-estate fraud remained at #25, although fewer consumers complained about it last year (8,468) compared to ...

The head of the Mortgage Bankers Association is pleased with the Obama administration's efforts to boost lending to borrowers with weaker credit.

Home prices nationwide jumped in February by the largest margin in seven years, said CoreLogic while the SEC has decided to allow public companies to Twitter and Facebook.

The Conference of State Bank Supervisors is calling upon the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to adopt a petition process to define “rural” counties as the bureau prepares to implement balloon “qualified mortgage” and escrow requirements for rural lenders.

New non-agency MBS settlements and issuance.

Profits on originations by independent mortgage banks and mortgage subsidiaries of chartered banks declined in the fourth quarter of 2012 compared with the previous quarter, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

Home loan-related consumer delinquencies, including those having to do with home equity lending, dropped across the board in the fourth quarter, the first time in a year, according to new data released Tuesday by the American Bankers Association.