House GOP’s Proposed Budget Rejects IT Administrative Fee, HTF. House Republicans withheld funding for a proposed administrative fee, which the FHA planned to invest in technology to improve quality assurance and reduce paid-claims losses. The Department of Housing and Urban Development first requested authority to collect the fee in the President’s FY 2015 budget request but was turned down. It appears House Republicans are on track again to reject the proposed fee in the FY 2016 appropriations bill, said HUD Secretary Juan Castro. Castro lambasted the House Republicans’ proposed budget cuts, saying they would hinder HUD from carrying out its mission and from investing in communities that most need help. The GOP bill also rescinds funding to the proposed Housing Trust Fund, which allocates a small percentage of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac profits to ...
Ellington Financial plans to start acquiring non-qualified mortgages by early summer, according to officials at the nonbank. While Ellington has always seen value in the non-agency market, to this point the company has largely focused its non-agency investments on mortgage-backed securities and other structured-finance products. Laurence Penn, Ellington’s president and CEO, said the nonbank signed its first flow agreement for non-QMs at the end of the first quarter. “Consistent with ...
Two types of shared-appreciation transactions are being touted as beneficial to borrowers, either allowing them to buy homes at below-market prices or receive advanced payment for expected appreciation. Analysts at the Urban Institute note that nonprofit housing associations and municipalities offer shared-appreciation programs that can make homes more affordable for first-time buyers, people with bad credit or buyers who lack the necessary downpayment or income to ...
Impac Mortgage Holdings increased its originations of non-qualified mortgages in the first quarter of 2015. The nonbank had $11.3 million in originations of its AltQM products during the quarter, topping the $7.0 million in non-QM production Impac had in the second half of 2014. Underwriting standards for jumbo mortgages continued to loosen in April, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. Underwriting for jumbos has loosened almost every month since ... [Includes three briefs]
Price reduction and improving economic factors helped push FHA volume up in the first quarter of 2015, according to an Inside FHA/VA Lending analysis of agency data. Production of forward single-family mortgages insured by FHA increased by 12.3 percent in the first quarter to $39.5 billion from $35.2 billion in the prior quarter, powered by a sharp uptick in refinances. FHA’s total refi business jumped from $2.29 billion in endorsements in February, a month of record snowstorms in the Northeast, to $8.15 billion in March. Total FHA forward-mortgage business rose by 83.8 percent from February, data showed. FHA streamline refis rose a whopping 144.1 percent quarter-over-quarter while conventional-to-FHA refis jumped 29.2 percent over the same period. Falling purchase loan volume, which was the reason for the overall decline in FHA originations last year, spilled over into ... [2 charts]
The Veterans Administration’s home loan guaranty program has racked up some serious refinance numbers in recent months, causing primary mortgage insurers to lose some market share during the first quarter of 2015, according to an Inside Mortgage Finance analysis of guarantor activity. Streamline refinance loans accounted for 59.0 percent of VA loans securitized by Ginnie Mae during the first three months, compared to just 32.8 percent of private MI loans securitized by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac over the same period. In addition, the VA had the highest average loan size among insured mortgages in the first quarter, approximately 7.2 percent larger than the average loan with private MI. Private mortgage insurers provided coverage on $45.2 billion of mint conventional mortgages during the first quarter, down 5.3 percent from the fourth quarter of last year. VA and FHA originations also increased over the same period by 6.0 percent and 5.5 percent, respectively. FHA forward originations surged ... [1 chart ]
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