FHA mortgage delinquency rates trended lower in the fourth quarter of 2012 as did the foreclosure rate – signs that the housing market recovery may be on track finally. An Inside FHA Lending analysis of top FHA servicers’ portfolios showed a modest drop in the overall past-due rate in the fourth quarter to 16.87 percent from 17.45 percent in the previous quarter. This includes loans that are 30-60 days delinquent as well as 90-day + delinquent. As of Dec. 31, FHA servicers held a total of 7.65 million loans in their portfolios, of which 2.87 percent were in some stage of foreclosure, down from 3.07 percent in the third quarter. Of that total number of FHA loans, 7.39 percent were ... [chart]
Expressing its views and estimates for the Fiscal Year 2014 budget, the House Financial Services Committee remains concerned that the FHA has not fully exercised its powers to protect its mortgage insurance fund and urged the agency to begin charging additional user fees to strengthen its financial footing. Apparently, there is a hitch in that proposal. It seems the Department of Housing and Urban Development does not charge user fees and to do so would probably need clear authorization from Congress, said a HUD spokesman. It is not clear what the committee meant by ...
Banks with major Ginnie Mae portfolios – and even smaller firms – increased their purchases of delinquent mortgages out of MBS pools in the fourth quarter compared to the third as a way to save money and refinance troubled loans. According to an analysis by Inside FHA Lending, the top 50 Ginnie Mae issuers bought $12.65 billion of problem loans out trusts in fourth quarter compared to $11.17 billion in the third, an increase of 13 percent. “Once you buy the loan it goes into your portfolio,” said Tim Rood, a partner in The Collingwood Group, a Washington-based advisory firm. “You can try to re-perform it and then re-securitize it,” he said. Wells Fargo, the largest Ginnie Mae servicer in the nation with a portfolio of $412 billion, purchased ... [1 chart]
The reverse mortgage lending industry has asked Senate lawmakers to expand the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s authority to strengthen its oversight of the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage program. Testifying before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs recently, Peter Bell, president of the National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association, said it is crucial for HUD to be able to act swiftly to reduce the risk the program poses to the FHA insurance fund. Bell said HUD needs to implement changes “in a matter of months, not years” and for that to happen, it would need authority from Congress to ...
The FHA’s efforts at underwriting reform and reducing its footprint to give way to private capital are nothing but an illusion of reform, according to the American Enterprise Institute. Raising the annual mortgage insurance premium and the required downpayment for FHA-insured loans greater than $625,500 as well as tightening the underwriting on loans with credit scores of 620 or below would impact only a tiny percentage of FHA business, said Edward Pinto, a resident fellow at AEI. “These changes make great sound bites but clearly this is the illusion of reform,” he said. Both measures are part of FHA’s latest efforts to ...
Billions of dollars in mortgage servicing rights have changed hands over the past two years – and the selling is far from over. The question now is how much more will be sold by the end of 2013. According to analysts who cover nonbank buyers of MSRs – and other sources – $1 trillion to $1.5 trillion in rights could transfer over the coming 18 to 24 months, though some of that is in the form of subservicing contracts. “Over the next year the figure could be...
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