Several hard money lenders are involved in financing flippers, charging interest rates that are several percentage points above the going Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac rate.
The CFPB sued Ohio-based Nationwide Biweekly Administration, Loan Payment Administration, and their owner, Daniel Lipsky, in federal district court last week, accusing them of misrepresenting the interest savings consumers will achieve through a biweekly mortgage payment program called the “Interest Minimizer” and misleading consumers about the cost of the program. Under the program, consumers who enroll send Nationwide half their monthly mortgage payment every two weeks, effectively making one additional monthly payment per year. According to the bureau, Nationwide charges consumers a setup fee of up to $995 to enroll in the program and charges consumers between $84 and $101 in payment processing fees each year they remain enrolled. According to the bureau’s complaint, the defendants made misrepresentations about the ...
The CFPB this week launched a public inquiry into student loan servicing practices that create repayment challenges, hurdles for distressed borrowers and economic incentives that may affect the quality of service. “As a growing share of student loan borrowers reach out to their servicers for help, the problems they encounter bear an uncanny resemblance to the situation where struggling homeowners reached out to their mortgage servicers before, during and after the financial crisis,” CFPB Director Richard Cordray said during a field hearing in Milwaukee on Thursday. “Having seen the improper and unnecessary foreclosures experienced by many homeowners, the CFPB is concerned that inadequate servicing is also contributing to America’s growing student loan default problem.” Currently, about 8 million Americans are...
Performance of subprime mortgages continues to improve as the volume of loans outstanding slowly declines. Some $320.0 billion in subprime mortgages were outstanding as of the end of the first quarter of 2015, according to estimates by Inside Nonconforming Markets. Volume was down 4.2 percent from the previous quarter and 16.0 percent from the first quarter of 2014. The total past-due rate for subprime mortgages fell to 17.60 percent ... [Includes one data chart]
Ocwen Financial filed its annual report for 2014 this week and noted that its auditors decided against requiring a “going concern” qualification for the nonbank. “We believe the filing of our annual report, without a qualification as to our ability to operate as a going concern, is additional evidence that our strategy to strengthen our compliance management system, strengthen the service we provide to our customers and improve our financial stability is working and that confidence ...
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]