HUD Nails Florida Company with Discrimination Charge. The Department of Housing and Urban Development charged a Florida company and its owners with housing discrimination for intentionally targeting Hispanic homeowners in a predatory mortgage modification scheme that increased, rather than decreased, their risk of foreclosure. HUD filed charges of discrimination under the Fair Housing Act against Advocate Law Groups of Florida and owners Jon B. Lindeman, Jr., and Ephigenia Lindeman. The defendants allegedly ran a deceptive advertising campaign for loan modification that aired on Spanish-language radio and television throughout Florida. Homeowners were offered $500 gift cards as an enticement to sign for a loan modification. Ginnie Mae MBS Outstanding Increases. Ginnie Mae mortgage-backed securities issuance totaled $38.9 billion in August, raising its ...
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Housing Service is considering extending two manufactured-housing pilot programs implemented in a number of states under the USDA Section 502 single-family housing guaranteed loan program. The planned expansion would provide a more balanced regional representation that would help RHS measure the pilots’ impact. Launched in August 2016, the first pilot involves financing of existing manufactured homes. The second pilot involves ownership requirements for new energy-efficient manufactured and modular houses in land-lease communities operating on a nonprofit basis. State requests to join one or both pilots are submitted to the USDA state director of rural development. The deputy administrator of single-family housing decides on the request. Decisions would be based on the date the request was received and whether the ...
The Mortgage Bankers Association expressed support for a proposed collection of a system user fee in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s single-family housing guaranteed loan program while underscoring the need for transparency and accountability regarding the use of the funds. “The [USDA] should be clear that it is limited in the scope of acceptable uses for the funds and that these funds will not be used for unspecified or unrelated activities,” the trade group said in its comment letter. The call for closer oversight of the proposed user-fees was among several recommendations the MBA made regarding the USDA proposal. Published in the July 13 Federal Register, the proposal would authorize the USDA to assess and collect a $25 fee from lenders for information technology upgrades. The fee will be collected through the USDA’s Lender Loan Closing (LLC) system when a loan goes to ...
The delinquency rates on the approximately 7.9 million FHA loans outstanding fell by 20.7 basis points in August from the previous month, according to an Inside FHA/VA Lending analysis of FHA data. About 11.24 percent of FHA loans were in various stages of delinquency at the end of August. An estimated 4.73 percent of active FHA loans were 30-60 days past due while 3.90 percent were 90-plus days seriously delinquent at midpoint of the third quarter. FHA loans that were 60 to 90 days delinquent accounted for 1.56 percent of FHA loans outstanding while 1.05 percent of loans were in foreclosure. Texas, which accounted for 805,535 of total FHA loans being serviced, reported 11.4 percent of the loans as delinquent or in foreclosure. Second-place California showed a 7.39 percent delinquency/foreclosure rate overall. The state’s foreclosure rate was at a very low 0.53 percent. New Jersey and Louisiana ... [Chart]
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