The Department of Housing and Urban Development has asked its inspector general for some leeway in making much needed changes to ensure servicers are employing loss mitigation. Responding to an audit, HUD asked the IG to modify some of the recommendations to enable the agency to make policy changes where needed and in a suitable format. HUD also requested that recommendations regarding indemnification and servicing be tweaked so that remedies will be required only when a deficiency is found. The IG audit was based on the result of an analysis, which showed that servicers may not be always evaluating delinquent FHA borrowers for loss mitigation as required and that HUD’s oversight in this area is weak. According to the findings, HUD did not have adequate controls to ensure that servicers of FHA-insured single-family loans properly engaged in ...
Wells Fargo recaptured its crown as the leading VA jumbo securitizer, pushing Penny Mac back to second place even as the market dropped further in the second quarter. The volume of VA jumbo loans securitized during the second quarter declined by 5.2 percent from the prior quarter and by 11.8 percent during the first half of 2017 compared to the same period last year. VA jumbo mortgage originations were off by 4.3 percent from the first quarter, according to an analysis by Inside FHA/VA Lending affiliate Inside Mortgage Finance. Agency-jumbo production sagged in the second quarter but the results were not uniform. Fannie Mae production was up 6.5 percent from the prior quarter, while FHA jumbo securitization gained 7.2 percent during the period. At the same time, VA jumbo securitization was down 5.2 percent to $7.4 billion from $7.8 billion, while Freddie Mac saw a hefty 27.8 percent drop in ... [Charts]
A Ginnie Mae crackdown on abusive VA refinancing could be positive for housing finance reform, according to a Washington research organization. In a recent analysis, the Cowen Washington Research Group said Ginnie’s effort to rein in lenders that are engaging in churning might benefit those who are trying to revamp Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. “We expect Ginnie Mae will succeed in curbing prepayment speed on VA mortgages,” wrote Jaret Seiberg, a financial services and housing policy analyst with the Cowen Group. “The crackdown is positive for government-sponsored enterprise reform as it should restore the spread between Ginnie and Fannie/Freddie MBS.” According to Seiberg, GSE reform advocates could potentially use the spread to pay for a housing finance bill that includes a government guarantee on the resulting MBS. Acting Ginnie Mae President Michael Bright has pledged to ...
The Congressional Budget Office has put forth a white paper with several options to minimize taxpayer risk in the FHA program. Although FHA delinquencies are at historical lows, the CBO would like less government exposure to FHA risk, fearing that the growing popularity of private sector programs will leave the government stuck with bad loans. CBO estimates that “the share of FHA-insured mortgages going to such borrowers is likely to keep shrinking as credit standards in the private market continue to ease. That change would leave FHA with a riskier pool of borrowers, creating risk-management challenges similar to the ones that contributed to the agency’s high levels of insurance claims and losses during the recession.” According to Inside Mortgage Finance’s database, FHA lending accounted for approximately $70.6 billion, or 15.4 percent, of all first-lien lending in the second quarter. CBO’s white ...
The Mortgage Bankers Association has asked the Department of Housing and Urban Development to tweak its current re-inspection policy, which may be interfering with certain home-sale transactions. In a recent letter, the MBA asked HUD to realign its re-inspection policy with those of the government-sponsored enterprises and the VA to prevent it from hindering sales that were in progress prior to hurricanes Harvey and Irma but had not closed when the storms hit. The MBA said the current policy requires that the inspection be completed after the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s “incident period.” HUD interprets this to mean the end date of the incident period. Because such periods can run anywhere from a few weeks to a couple of months and could be reopened or extended, many borrowers face needless delay from completing a home sale, even where there is no ...
In the second quarter, the top three HEL originators were Bank of America, Chase and Wells Fargo, according to a new ranking from Inside Mortgage Finance…
After a couple of slow weeks, there appears to be renewed interest among investors looking to buy mortgage servicing rights, but in certain markets caution is being expressed regarding properties where hurricane damage might be an issue. In mid-September, Fannie Mae issued a bulletin temporarily suspending servicing transfers involving properties located within designated disaster areas. A week after the Sept. 13 bulletin was issued, Fannie clarified to market participants that the bulletin was meant as guidance and not a firm directive or prohibition on MSR transfers. According to Incenter Mortgage Advisors, Denver, some sellers of Fannie receivables “elected...
The mortgage servicing market maintained its steady growth pattern during the second quarter of 2017, inching up 0.7 percent to $10.430 trillion, according to new Federal Reserve data. That was the biggest number for mortgage debt outstanding since the first quarter of 2011, when the market stood at $10.439 trillion. Most of the growth has been in Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae servicing but portfolio holdings of whole loans are also on the upswing. There was...[Includes two data tables]
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