The Department of Veterans Affairs will soon seek comments on certain proposed rules that would allow VA underwriting guidelines to remain independent of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and to also implement a lender scorecard. After a lengthy discussion with the CFPB regarding the “qualified mortgage” rule, the VA said it will propose a rule that would prohibit CFPB’s new underwriting guidelines from superseding existing VA guidelines. The VA feels there is no need for any significant change to its current underwriting rules due to ...
FHA endorsements saw very little improvement in May as mortgage interest rates began to climb, according to Inside FHA Lending’s analysis of FHA data. Total FHA originations rose only 2.4 percent in May to $22.0 billion from $21.5 billion the previous month, and 8.9 percent on a year-over-year basis. Volume was split down the middle between purchase and refinancings, with rates rising from 3.35 percent during the first week of May to 3.81 percent at the end of May. Retail accounted for 81 percent of FHA endorsements, which were mostly 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages. The average interest rate for FHA-insured, 30-year FRMs was ... [1 chart]
Reverse mortgage lenders, consumer groups and certain advocates for the elderly are urging Congress to enact legislation passed recently by the House of Representatives granting the FHA additional authority to govern its reverse mortgage program. Testifying before the Senate Banking Subcommittee on Housing, Transportation and Community Development, the groups said the most productive action Congress can take is to pass H.R. 2167 to allow HUD to make expeditious changes to the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage program through mortgagee letters. The bill, which the House approved on June 12, would ...
HUD Explains ‘Good Neighbor Next Door’ Program. The Department of Housing and Urban Development has issued Mortgagee Letter 2013-20 to clarify certain things about the FHA’s Good Neighbor Next Door Sales program. The program allows eligible borrowers to purchase, at 50 percent off the list price, a HUD-acquired single-unit home located in an area that the department has targeted for revitalization. According to HUD, the mortgage insurance premium should be based on the first mortgage only. The agency also clarified the process for allowing interruptions to ...
It appears that Cerberus is going down the mortgage aisle one more time. Let's hope it doesn't end like GMAC. Meanwhile, jumbo MBS market seizes up, temporarily.
Bank and thrift holdings of home-equity loans continue to decline, according to the Inside Mortgage Finance Bank Mortgage Database. Performance on the loans has been mixed, and there are concerns about the expiring interest-only period on vintage home-equity lines of credit. Banks and thrifts held $1.07 trillion in HELs – HELOCs, unused HELOC commitments and closed-end second liens – at the end of the first quarter of 2013, down 1.8 percent from the previous quarter. TD Bank was ... [Includes one data chart]
The five servicers involved in the $25 billion national servicing settlement have largely complied with the 304 standards included in the settlement. However, Bank of America, CitiMortgage, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo each failed at least one metric tested in the settlement and could face monetary penalties. In a report released last week, Joseph Smith, the settlement’s monitor, said he found eight failed metrics: two by BofA, three by Citi, two by Chase and one by Wells Fargo. Only the ...
Implementation of state-specific servicing standards like California’s would impose "divergent and conflicting standards" that will add costs to future home buyers and create confusion, said one MBA official.
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