The plan to raise the standard has been met with hostility by many in the residential real estate industry, said Matthew Pointon, an economist at Capital Economics.

Although it lost money on an accounting basis, its funds from operations, or FFO, came in at $78.2 million compared to $64.3 million for 1Q16.

Alterra Home Loans hired Tom Middleton as senior vice president of business development and national expansion. He joins the nonbank from On Q Financial...

Several trade groups, investors and analysts quickly issued their take on Watt’s comments, but there were some notables missing in action: Pershing Square and Fairholme.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has opened an investigation into certain single-family rental securitizations and is requesting information from market participants, including Green River Capital, a subsidiary of a private mortgage insurance company. The investigation first came to light when Radian Group disclosed in a recent 10-Q filing that Green River received a letter from the SEC requesting information regarding broker price opinions that GRC provided on properties included in SFR transactions. Green River, which falls under Radian’s Clayton Holdings affiliate, is...

Industry attorneys are warning about a “third wave” of Lehman Brothers Holdings (LBHI) MBS trust claims against mortgage lenders and brokers based on the firm’s latest bankruptcy filing. Attorneys with the firm American Mortgage Law Group said Lehman Brothers for several years has been threatening to file residential MBS trust claims against the mortgage industry to counter trustee claims filed against LBHI in bankruptcy in 2009. The wait is...

The Lone Star MBS received AAA ratings with credit enhancement of 34.10 percent on the senior tranche.

Nonbank lenders far out-produced depository institutions in originating FHA mortgages during the first quarter of 2017. A new Inside FHA/VA Lending analysis reveals that nonbank lenders produced over 83 percent of FHA forward loans endorsed during the first quarter. With over 8,000 entities listed as originators and sponsors in FHA loan-level data, the overwhelming majority of them were independent mortgage banks, mortgage brokers and other nonbank lenders. The 14 largest FHA originators were all nonbanks, led by Quicken Loans, Freedom Mortgage and loanDepot. One sign of the overwhelming fragmentation in the FHA primary market is the fact that these three lenders accounted for just 11.3 percent of first-quarter endorsements. The largest depository originator of FHA loans was PrimeLending, an affiliate of PlainsCapital Bank. It ranked 15th in production with a ... [charts ]

What is an “egregious” VA mortgage loan? Panelists at last month’s VA Lending Conference in Kansas City, MO, helped shed light on such loans by describing them as flawed and in violation of VA requirements. “But there’s more,” said Greg Nelms, VA chief of loan policy. Unstable income and use of active-duty income when that income will be extinguished within one year could taint a VA loan and make it egregious, said Nelms. High debt-to-income ratio, residual income that is below VA requirements and failure to consider a spouse’s debts or credit in a community-property state also could have an adverse effect on a VA loan, he added. The panel presented several “egregious loan” scenarios involving reviews of several mortgages from 2016 in which lenders were required to sign indemnification agreements. The first example consisted of a VA home loan for $102,047, which closed in ...

The Department of Veterans Affairs’ interim final rule on qualified mortgages (QM) implements the Dodd-Frank provision requiring creditors to make a reasonable and good faith determination that the borrower has a reasonable ability to repay the loan. The VA interim final rule defines QM to mean any loan that the agency guarantees, insures or originates. However, certain limitations apply to VA’s Interest Rate Reduction Refinance Loans (IRRRLs) in the rule’s guidance for “safe harbor.” Under the safe harbor requirements for an IRRRL, the loan being refinanced must have been originated at least six months before the new loan’s closing, and six payments must have been made. In addition, the veteran should not have been more than 30 days past due during the six months preceding the new loan’s closing. The QM rule’s six-month seasoning requirement, however, inadvertently created an ...