An approved FHA lender in Brentwood, TN, is reporting a mini boom in its FHA refinance business, thanks to the FHA Streamline Refinance program. Churchill Mortgage, a provider of conventional and government-backed loans in 26 states, has reported a 540 percent increase in its FHA refi business through the agency’s streamline program. According to Matt Clarke, chief operating officer, Churchill Mortgage is expecting this year to top last year’s FHA refi production as well as its FHA streamline originations. In 2011, the company reported an estimated ...

The first six months of 2012 saw heightened activity in FHA’s Streamline Refinancing as borrowers scrambled to take advantage of the program’s lower insurance premiums. Streamline refi originations jumped 90.5 percent during the last two quarters compared to volume reported over the same period last year. Production rose 13.5 percent from the first to the second quarter. Volume increases have been amazing since the third quarter of last year, when lenders reported $4.7 billion in total streamline refi originations. Since that period, production leapfrogged to ... (1 chart)

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac both saw substantial declines in deliveries of home mortgages with balances exceeding $417,000 during the second quarter, offsetting a significant increase in FHA originations of conforming jumbo loans. Combined, the three agencies did $24.1 billion in conforming jumbo mortgage business – loans on single-unit properties in the lower 48 states that exceed the old $417,000 loan limit. That was down 16.3 percent from the first three months of 2012 at a time when overall mortgage origination volume fell 5.2 percent. Meanwhile, originations of non-agency jumbo loans rose...[Includes two data charts]

What started as a battle between investors has spread to include lenders, borrowers and servicers. Proponents of plans to use eminent domain for principal reduction warn that the government-spon-sored enterprises and lenders could be subject to redlining and other consumer protection regulations for opposing the evolving scheme. No county or municipality has implemented a wide-scale eminent domain plan, though a number of areas are considering the option. Non-agency mortgage-backed security investors have strongly opposed eminent domain proposals, claiming they are unconstitutional, among other issues. “This unprecedented use of eminent domain law, if successful, would...

Despite increased activity in the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac refinance programs for underwater borrowers during the second quarter of 2012, total refi originations declined by 4.8 percent from the first three months of the year, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance analysis and ranking. Refinance activity still accounted for 68.1 percent of originations during the most recent quarter, but that was down from 75.3 percent in the first three months of the year. Partly offsetting the drop in refi business was a 35.8 percent increase in purchase-mortgage originations, which rose to an estimated $129.0 billion in the second quarter. But compared to the first half of 2011, purchase-mortgage lending was down 1.3 percent as of the midway point this year. Refinance originations appear to be climbing in the third quarter. Data on Fannie and Freddie securitization activity in July and August suggest that total refi business at the government-sponsored enterprises is...[Includes four data charts]

One of the most worrisome elements to emerge so far in the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s proposed rule on mortgage loan originator compensation is the agency’s consideration of factors that may serve as proxies for prohibited transaction terms and how they may be used to restrict originator compensation. The CFPB proposal would implement statutory changes made by the Dodd-Frank Act to the Truth in Lending Act/Regulation Z loan originator compensation rule, including a new, additional restriction on the imposition of any upfront discount points, origination points or fees on consumers under certain circumstances. The proposal provides...

The blowback over yield-spread premiums and subprime mortgages continued in Lee v. Countrywide Home Loans, Inc., in which the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit has determined that a lender – in this case, Countrywide Home Loans, and by extension, parent Bank of America – may be liable under state common law claims of civil conspiracy for failing to disclose fees paid to a mortgage broker. This subprime mortgage case was brought by the borrowers (the Lees) against the lender (Countrywide), its parent company (Bank of...

The Department of Housing and Urban Development appears to have lost a round in its fight to bring an alleged FHA defrauder to justice. HUD suffered a setback recently after U.S. District Judge Gray Miller in Houston granted declaratory relief to Allied Home Mortgage Corp. (AHMC) to challenge HUD’s suspension of the lender’s authority to originate and underwrite FHA-insured loans. The Houston-based lender contends that HUD acted capriciously and arbitrarily without due process of law. It based these claims on ...

The reverse mortgage lending industry urged state regulators to update the existing reverse mortgage examination guidelines (RMEG) to conform to regulatory changes that have occurred in the market in the last three years. The National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association (NRMLA) submitted proposed changes to the Conference of State Bank Supervisors regarding term definitions, examiner checklist, product descriptions, comparison worksheet, mandatory housing counseling, as well as other sections. The CSBS jointly published the ...

The Department of Housing and Urban Development said it will step up its oversight of the department’s loan quality review to ensure that weaknesses, such as those uncovered in a recent internal audit, will not happen again. An audit performed by the agency’s Office of the Inspector General concluded that HUD’s Quality Assurance Division had adequate oversight of lenders’ compliance with FHA underwriting standards but for two loans that apparently eluded reviewers. QAD reviewers are required to ...