FHA lenders are anticipating long-awaited guidance from the Department of Housing and Urban Development implementing sweeping changes related to reverse-mortgage borrowers in default for not paying their taxes and insurance. But don’t be surprised if HUD issues additional guidance before the implementation date, said James Wright, an attorney with Bradley Arant Boult Cummings’ Birmingham office. First announced in April 2015, the guidance sets...

The Department of Housing and Urban Development has revised reasonable diligence timeframes in 32 jurisdictions and provided guidance on judicial foreclosure of FHA loans in the District of Columbia. The updated timeframes are effective for all cases in which the deadline for taking the first legal action in a foreclosure occurs on or after Jan. 1, 2016. The revised schedule of attorney fees is...

The Department of Veterans Affairs has entered into an agreement with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to manage and market the latter’s inventory of real estate-owned single-family and multifamily properties. Mike Frueh, director of the VA Home Loan Guaranty Program, revealed the agreement during a recent hearing by the House Committee on Veterans Affairs on the state of program. Frueh told...

Mortgage product innovation could be dead thanks to a new policy from the CFPB...

Roughly 60 percent of the nonbank's fourth quarter originations came through the consumer-direct channel.

"Assuming we achieve our cost, volume and other business objectives, and the market unfolds as forecast, we expect core earnings before notable items to be breakeven to modestly profitable for 2016," said CEO Glen Messina.

Suddenly, mortgage firms left and right are buying back common stock in the open market...

Mortgage delinquency rates continued their upward trend in the fourth quarter of 2015 with the highest percentage of delinquencies recorded for the year, according to the Inside Mortgage Finance Large Servicer Delinquency Index. About 5.98 percent of the $5.194 trillion in home loans covered in the survey were in some stage of default as of Dec. 31, 2015. That was up from 5.85 percent in the third quarter of last year, but down from the 6.53 percent in the fourth quarter of 2014. The number of loans that were more than 90 days late witnessed the largest uptick, growing from 1.62 percent to 1.71 percent. The only category that showed any kind of a decrease was...[Includes one data table]

“It is time to shrug off the naysaying consultants and lawyers who breed a culture of fear and hypothesized problems to hype their services,” Cordray added.

Fairholme is feeling the heat from investors over poor performance, with Berkowitz noting the fund’s returns have “put us in the dog house.”