Housing counselors participating in the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s various programs must be certified to offer counseling services to consumers, according to a final rule issued this week by the agency. In order to become certified, housing counselors must pass a standardized written examination and work for a HUD-approved housing counseling agency (HCA). Applicants must demonstrate proficiency in six areas of housing counseling: financial management, property maintenance, responsibilities of homeownership and tenancy, fair housing laws and requirements, housing affordability, and avoidance of mortgage delinquency, eviction and default. Despite its recent release, the final rule will take full effect three years following the announcement of the certification exam. HUD will offer intensive training and study resources in English and Spanish to ...
The growing popularity of private-label servicing and the way it’s offered to lenders are raising regulatory questions, underscoring the need for guidance and supervision, according to legal experts. With the most comprehensive offerings of private-label servicing, the borrower never knows the subservicer exists, and that’s the point of the arrangement, according to Craig Nazzaro, of counsel at the Atlanta-based law firm Baker Donelson. Nazzaro attributes...
Home-equity lending cooled off in the third quarter of 2016 as consumers took advantage of low interest rates to refinance rather than draw down more second-mortgage debt. Lenders originated an estimated $50.7 billion of home-equity loans during the third quarter, including home-equity lines of credit and closed-end second mortgages. Although that was down 5.2 percent from the second quarter, it still marked the second highest three-month volume since the housing market collapse in 2008. And depository institutions, the dominant lenders in the HEL market, reported...[Includes three data tables]
While the deal includes many non-QMs and IOs, along with a “tier 3” representation and warranty framework, the senior tranche of the MBS will include credit enhancement of 5.75 percent.
Appraisal-related issues cause more than one out of every 10 purchase-mortgage applications to be denied, according to CoreLogic. Below-contract appraisals comprised 11.3 percent of the first-lien purchase-loan appraisals ordered through the CoreLogic/FNC Collateral Management System, according to Yanling Mayer, director of research in CoreLogic’s office of chief economist. The CMS is a workflow and compliance platform used by many lenders, servicers and appraisal management companies. Mayer noted...
RSS