Many industry executives are not impressed with the FHA’s 50 basis point premium reduction, suggesting that the new pricing would not have that big an impact on the mortgage market, according to a new survey by the Collingwood Group. Conducted from Jan. 12 to 21, 2015, the monthly survey said 47 percent thought that President Obama’s estimate of the number of borrowers benefiting from the cut – 250,000 – is too high. Approximately 34 percent said the estimate was “on the mark” and 19 percent said it was too low. In addition, 25 percent of respondents thought the premium reduction was more motivated by politics than a desire to implement a major change in the market. Those respondents who said “too high” also noted that FHA underwriting remains tough and that price differences are not large enough to steer borrowers to FHA. Respondents, however, agreed that ...

Reverse mortgage lenders now have the option to delay calling a Home Equity Conversion Mortgage due and payable where there is an eligible non-borrowing spouse and a case number assigned prior to Aug. 4, 2014. A delay would postpone foreclosure triggered by the death of the HECM borrower or the last surviving borrower and allow the qualified, non-borrowing spouse to stay in the house for a certain period until the HECM is resolved. Under revised FHA guidance, reverse mortgage lenders are allowed to assign eligible HECMs to the Department of Housing and Urban Development upon the death of the borrower. They have the option of foreclosing in accordance with the contract as endorsed or choose the “mortgagee optional election assignment (MOE).” MOE means the optional assignment selected by a lender for a HECM loan with an assigned FHA case number prior to ...

Overall, 2014 was not a good year for FHA originations as tight underwriting and high loan costs narrowed the band of borrowers able to qualify for an FHA-insured residential loan, according to an Inside FHA Lending analysis of agency data. FHA total endorsements dropped to $35.2 billion, an 8.1 percent drop in the fourth quarter from the previous quarter, with fixed-rate and adjustable-rate mortgages declining by 7.9 percent and 12.7 percent, respectively. FHA purchase originations suffered a decline of 11.3 percent. There was one bright spot: FHA refinances rose a meager 2.2 percent while the percentage of conventional loans that refinanced into FHA saw a more substantial lift of 13.0 percent quarter to quarter. FHA baseline lending (below $417,000) saw volume drop 8.4 percent in the fourth quarter. FHA jumbo loan amounts up to the statutory high-cost loan limit and ... [ 2 charts ]

The FHA has updated the contents of a notice to delinquent borrowers regarding the availability of approved housing counseling and provided a new template for lenders to explain, in simple terms, the benefits of housing counseling. The latest guidance, Revised Notification to Homeowners of Availability of Housing Counseling Services (Mortgagee Letter 2015-04), also provides a description of counseling services to delinquent borrowers. The revised requirements supplement those outlined in previous mortgagee letters and certain provisions in the HUD handbook. Lenders must comply with the new requirements by April 4, 2015. FHA lenders must provide delinquent borrowers with a notice about the availability of housing counseling by an approved provider and the principal mortgage lender. However, there is no standard language for such notices Hence, the FHA has ...

Most importantly, the ATR proposal would exclude from that limit loans held in portfolio.

In its 8-K filing with the SEC, Ocwen revealed that during 2014, state regulators commenced 46 examinations “of one or more of our areas of operation…”

Two Harbors is a member of the FHLB system via a captive insurance affiliate. The Federal Housing Finance Agency is contemplating snuffing out this avenue of membership...

At yearend, PMFS serviced $106.0 billion of mortgages, ranking 15th nationwide, according to a new market analysis from Inside Mortgage Finance.

Two Harbors, a REIT, has been aggregating, on average, $300 million of jumbo mortgages per month.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau made a few industry hearts skip a beat last week when it proposed loosening some of the parameters of the ability-to-repay rule for small lenders and for those providing credit to rural and underserved communities. Under the bureau’s proposal, small lenders could hold an unlimited number of mortgages in portfolio without sacrificing their “small creditor” status under the ATR rule. In and of itself, the change isn’t that big a deal. But what really captured some industry representatives’ imagination was the possibility that it might represent a liberalization of the bureau’s attitude toward portfolio loans in the context of the ATR rule and more concessions ahead. Under the CFPB’s proposal, the definition of “small creditor” would expand...