Ginnie Mae securitization of single-family mortgages backed by rural housing loans with the U.S. Department of Agriculture guarantee rose in the second quarter of 2017 and on a year-over-year basis. Issuance of securitized USDA loans increased 9.0 percent from the previous quarter and was up 17.1 percent halfway through 2017 compared to first six months last year. Securitized rural housing loans accounted for $5.0 billion of total Ginnie MBS issuance in the second quarter and $9.5 billion of Ginnie MBS issued during the first six months of 2017. Freedom Mortgage led the market with $1.8 billion. Although down 1.4 percent from the first quarter, Freedom reported a whopping tenfold increase for the first six months from the same period last year. PennyMac maintained its second-place ranking with $1.4 billion, up significantly on a quarterly and year-over-year basis, while Wells Fargo, in third place, closed out the first half with $673.8 million in USDA-backed MBS. Chase Home Finance climbed ... [Chart]

The FHA will provide lenders that originate Home Equity Conversion Mortgage loans the option to view and print unsigned HECM counseling certificates in FHA Connection starting Sept. 18, 2017. While the lender may still take the initial loan application, the lender can only begin to process it once the counseling is complete, as evidenced by a completed HECM counseling certificate that contains signatures of both the counselor and borrower. Lenders that chose to use this option will be required to establish procedures to obtain and document authorization from the HECM borrower to access the counseling certificate in FHA Connection. In addition, lenders must certify that a borrower authorization to view the counseling certificate was obtained. Lenders must follow the guidance on processing HECM loans contained in the HUD Handbook, the FHA said. To access HECM counseling certificates, lenders will ...

DOL’s Overtime Rule Dead – For Now. A federal district court in Texas recently struck down an Obama administration proposal that would have made millions of people eligible for overtime pay. Judge Amos Mazzant of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas on Aug. 31 invalidated the DOL’s pending overtime regulations, which would have raised the salary threshold exemptions under the Fair Labor Standards Act. The Obama administration finalized the proposed regulations in May last year but was unable to implement them after Mazzant granted a request for injunction filed by the Plano Chamber of Commerce and 55 other business groups last November. The business entities opposed the proposed rule, which would have raised the minimum salary threshold necessary to qualify for the FLSA’s overtime exemption. The salary threshold would have increased from ...

Changing demographics will be the private mortgage insurance industry’s most powerful growth engine over the next 20 years, predicts an industry report published by the Urban Institute’s Housing Finance Policy Center. The new report cited U.S. census data showing a 10 percent increase in the share of minority households in U.S. homeownership over the last two decades. It forecasts the share will increase to 38 percent by 2030. Demographic shifts, growth of minority households ...

Mortgage lenders harvested a landmark crop of purchase-money mortgages during the second quarter, fueled partly by continuing growth in the first-time buyer segment, according to a new ranking and analysis by Inside Mortgage Finance. An estimated $307.0 billion of purchase loans were originated in the second quarter, up a stunning 49.8 percent from the first three months of the year. That was the highest quarterly volume for purchase-mortgage lending since the third quarter of 2006. Purchase loans accounted for 67.5 percent of the estimated $455.0 billion in first-lien mortgage originations during the April-June cycle, the highest such share since at least 2003. First-time buyers contributed...[Includes three data tables]

First-time homebuyers accounted for $170.3 billion of securitized purchase mortgages during the first half of 2017, according to an Inside FHA/VA Lending analysis of loan-level data for mortgage-backed securities issued by Ginnie mae, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Purchase-mortgage origination to first-time homebuyers was up 15.7 percent year-over-year and comprised 50.3 percent of total purchase-mortgage loans securitized during the six-month period. FHA accounted for 36.8 percent ($61.4 billion) of first-time homebuyer purchase mortgages delivered into agency pools from beginning to midyear, while conventional purchase mortgages with private mortgage insurance accounted for 28.3 percent ($48.3 billion) over the same period. FHA and private MI are the two leading mortgage insurers for first-time homebuyers. Together, they have provided mortgage insurance for nearly ... [Charts]

The Department of Housing and Urban Development this week announced changes to the FHA-insured reverse mortgage program, including a 200 basis point adjustment in the upfront mortgage insurance premium that may shut out some potential borrowers. HUD officials acknowledged during a press call that changes in both the upfront MIP and the HECM principal limit factors could reduce the number of borrowers initially by as much as 20 percent. Officials estimated that there are approximately 24 million seniors with untapped equity in their homes. “Overall, it is still a very large potential market,” said one official who spoke on background. “In the last few years, we did about 45,000 to 50,000 reverse mortgages annually. The net effect of all these changes is a better and safe HECM program for seniors. We’ll just have to wait and see how it plays out.” The revisions would help stabilize the ...

The FHA has issued guidance to clarify new servicing requirements in the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage final rule that will take effect on Sept. 17, 2017. The HECM final rule codifies previously issued policies as well as new policies contained in the HECM proposed rule published on May 19, 2016. The guidance provides more detail on three servicing policies contained in the HECM final rule that HUD published in the Federal Register on Jan. 19. These policy areas include default for unpaid property charges, sale of property securing a due and payable HECM, and cash-for-keys and relocation incentives. The comment period ends on Sept. 24. Specifically, the guidance clarifies when a lender must submit a due-and-payable request if a borrower is unable or unwilling to repay funds advanced by the lender to pay property charges. In addition, the guidance updates the ...

The FHA this week extended temporary rules for approving condominium projects for FHA financing indefinitely. The extension will remain in place until the condominium rulemaking process is completed, the agency said in a mortgagee letter. Temporary approval requirements were first issued in 2012 and later modified in 2015. The current temporary provisions expired on Aug. 31, 2017. Under a proposed rule issued for comment on Sept. 27, 2016, elderly condominium owners would find it easier to obtain a Home Equity Conversion Mortgage. FHA proposes to reinstate “spot condo” approvals whereby individual units are approved by FHA rather than the entire condominium project as required under current rules. Spot-condo approvals would require property recertification every three years rather than the current two-year requirements. Processing recertifications would be streamlined under the ...

As Hurricane Harvey’s floodwaters recede, federal agencies that provide guarantees on mortgages are faced with the daunting task of identifying and assisting borrowers with government-backed mortgages in disaster-stricken areas of Texas. FHA, VA, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Housing Service and Ginnie Mae have issued special relief guidance for approved lenders following Hurricane Harvey. The FHA has issued guidance to remind lenders and servicers that FHA-insured mortgages secured by properties in a presidentially-declared major disaster area are subject to a 90-day moratorium on foreclosures following a natural disaster. FHA also provides lenders an automatic 90-day extension upon expiration of the moratorium to begin or re-start foreclosure action or evaluate the borrower’s need for loss mitigation. In addition, FHA urged servicers to brush up on the 203(h) and the ...