The USDA’s Rural Housing Service is proposing to amend regulations implementing its guaranteed single-family home loan program to allow the use of “income banding” in determining the very low- and low-income limits in the guaranteed loan program. The planned rule change is part of a larger package of proposed changes to RHS’s single-family direct and guaranteed loan and grant programs. The proposed revisions were published in the Aug. 31 Federal Register. Among other things, RHS has proposed to revise the definition of low-income to allow for the two-tier income limit structure or “income banding” within the Section 502 single-family guaranteed home loan program. The program provides USDA guarantees to lenders that make mortgage loans to low- and moderate-income borrowers in rural areas who could not qualify for a conventional home loan with private mortgage insurance. It already uses ...

Home Equity Conversion Mortgage originations fell dramatically in the second quarter, raising the possibility of a long reverse-mortgage winter in 2018, according to an Inside FHA/VA Lending analysis of HECM data. HECM production fell a whopping 40.9 percent in the second quarter from the previous period. Total HECM originations stood at $8.6 billion by the six-month mark, down 8.3 percent from the prior year. Traditional HECMs, which exclude purchases and refinances, accounted for 80.5 percent of FHA-insured reverse mortgages originated during the first half of 2018. The amount of funds available at loan origination for the first six months totaled $4.7 billion. Analysts blame the low HECM originations on the new lower Principal Limit Factors (PLFs) for HECMs, which became effective in FY 2018. Under the HECM final rule issued last year by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, principal limits [Chart]

Fitch views prepayments as a positive credit factor…

Former Federal Housing Finance Agency Acting Director Ed DeMarco told us the bill is a good starting point and includes language that both Democrats and Republicans can agree on...

Industry consultant Tim Rood said the first rule for GSE reform should be: “Do no harm.”

Alston & Bird: “We’ve all learned the hard way…”

August often sets the high-water mark for annual purchase-loan business for the agencies…

Never one to mask his complete disdain for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Rep. Jeb Hensarling let it rip...

One housing lobbyist dismissed the bill as misguided, adding: “This is like someone laying on their death bed after drinking and sinning and finally realizing they need to get baptized.”

First-time homebuyers accounted for over half of the purchase-money mortgages securitized by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae during the second quarter of 2018, according to a new analysis of mortgage-backed securities data by Inside Mortgage Finance. [Includes four data charts.]