Private mortgage insurers have announced changes in their premium rate structure to make their pricing more risk-based. The question is would this drive borrowers with lower credit scores toward FHA? Lenders say that while the private MI rate changes appear to make it more expensive for borrowers with lower credit scores to obtain a conventional mortgage, FHA’s life-of-loan policy could also cost borrowers more in the end. Analysts, too, are confident that private MI risk-adjusted pricing will not have any significant impact on FHA, positive or otherwise. Six private mortgage insurers have updated their premium rate cards in keeping with the new capital requirements under the government-sponsored enterprises’ Private Mortgage Insurer Eligibility Requirements (PMIERs) that were implemented in January 2016. The proposed rate changes are subject to ...

A clause in a New York home-purchase contract excluding government-backed financing from seller consideration is raising potential disparate impact concerns. A residential-lending manager in Sarasota, FL, emailed Inside FHA/VA Lending a copy of the contract with the controversial language embedded in Section 8 under the heading “Mortgage Commitment Contingency.” The paragraph read in part, “… institutional lender agrees to make a first loan other than a VA, FHA or other governmentally insured loan, to purchaser …”. “The language makes clear that no government-backed loans such as VA, FHA or USDA are acceptable to the seller [of the property],” the lender, who requested anonymity, said. “It is pretty rampant as cash is king and no one on the selling side wants to wait for payment.” Apparently, such clauses are nothing new. In fact, they have been around for ...

The FHA will soon begin implementing system enhancements to the Electronic Appraisal Delivery (EAD) portal to improve its functionality further and to address user feedback. Use of the EAD portal becomes mandatory on June 27, 2016, when appraisers will begin to submit their appraisals electronically to FHA, reducing the time for processing and closing an FHA-insured loan. The FHA will implement the changes on March 14. First, reference to the six-digit alphanumeric “one-time key” used by a mortgagee’s designated EAD administrator to log into the EAD portal will be changed to “appraisal portal one-time key.” References to the key will be revised throughout the EAD portal screens and system-generated messages. The appraisal portal’s one-time key is generated in FHA Connection and is the last step in the initial EAD login process. In addition, users will be given a ...

“I think that criticism is badly misplaced,” said CFPB Director Richard Cordray during a speech before the Consumer Bankers Association in Phoenix.

The supply of “conforming-jumbo” mortgage originations flowing into agency mortgage-backed securities programs contracted sharply in the fourth quarter of 2015, but overall jumbo lending still held up better than the overall market, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance analysis. During the final three months of 2015, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae securitized $24.69 billion of mortgages with loan amounts that exceeded the baseline conforming loan limit, $417,000… [Includes three charts]

Refinance activity was heavy in the first half of 2015, and jumbo borrowers typically have more to gain by pulling the refi trigger.

PHH has retained Credit Suisse Securities and J.P. Morgan as financial advisors and Jones Day as legal advisor “to assist in the process.”

Among the top 10 non-agency jumbo mortgage producers in 2015 just two are nonbanks: PHH Mortgage and Redwood Trust.

In dollars and cents, additional spending at Fannie totaled $726 million over the four-year period, while at Freddie the reading was a more benign $376 million.

Zais said a strategic review of the REIT will continue, including exploration of a possible sale or even a liquidation of the company’s assets.