Spurred by low interest rates and strong house price appreciation, Home Equity Conversion Mortgage loan originations rose 20.3 percent during the first nine months of 2013 compared to the same period the year before, according to Inside FHA Lending’s analysis of FHA snapshot data. HECM lenders reported $11.8 billion in total originations over the nine-month period, with initial principal amount at loan origination totaling $7.8 billion. Purchase reverse mortgage loans comprised 94.5 percent while fixed-rate mortgages accounted for ... [1 chart]

The FHA saw its share of the first-time homebuyer market drop slightly in 2013 because of higher fees and stringent mortgage insurance requirements, according to the latest Campbell/Inside Mortgage Finance HousingPulse Tracking Survey. First-time homebuyers still comprise a solid chunk of FHA’s traditional base, but there has been some erosion in the past year, the survey of real estate agents found. The decline was due to changes implemented by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which resulted in higher mortgage insurance premiums for FHA loans. The agency also ...

The Department of Housing and Urban Development will accept electronic signatures on FHA loan documents provided the lender complies with the department’s latest e-sign guidelines. E-signatures are voluntary under current HUD rules. Effective immediately, however, HUD will accept such signatures on FHA paperwork relating to mortgage insurance, servicing and loss mitigation, FHA insurance claims, HUD real estate-owned sales contracts and related addenda as long as they meet the new requirements. The new policy applies to all FHA forward mortgages and Home Equity Conversion Mortgage loans. HUD will treat eligible e-signatures as ...

California lenders and realtors will appeal to the Department of Housing and Urban Development to reconsider changes in the FHA 2014 loan limits. Lenders doing business in counties that have been hard hit by the loan-limit changes are reportedly gathering data to support future requests to HUD to recalculate loan limits for a specific local area. An industry source said lenders in the Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario housing market are gearing up to petition HUD to recalculate the FHA loan limits in those areas. Specifically, the median sales price for a one-unit property in the affected areas fell ...

The Senate this week passed bipartisan legislation that would delay unforeseen, excessive flood-insurance premium hikes for FHA and conventional mortgages nationwide. S. 1926, the Homeowner Flood Insurance Affordability Act, passed by a vote of 67 to 32, as amended. Introduced by Sens. Robert Menendez, D-NJ, and Johnny Isakson, R-GA, the bill would delay rate increases for up to four years by giving the Federal Emergency Management Agency time to study the problem and develop a plan to help homeowners who cannot afford higher premiums. The increases were mandated by the Biggert-Waters Flood Insurance Reform Act, which Congress ...

Ginnie Mae is considering lengthening the approval time for transfers of mortgage servicing rights (MSRs) to 90 days or more from the current 30 days but has yet to issue guidance. The agency alerted sellers of MSRs and their investment banking advisors of the forthcoming change in late November at an “education summit” in Washington, according to a participant, who preferred anonymity. New and existing issuers participated in the event, and a copy of Ginnie Mae’s presentation was provided to Inside Mortgage Finance, an affiliated publication. Ginnie Mae declined to comment on the report. However, according to the presentation, the reason for ...

VA Lenders’ Compliance with CFPB’s Ability-to-Repay and Qualified Mortgage Rules. Until the Department of Veterans Affairs’ rule on ATR/QM is in place, all VA lenders must comply with the requirements of the Truth in Lending Act, as established by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s ATR/QM rule, according to a recent agency guideline. VA will continue to guarantee all loans made in compliance with existing VA requirements, regardless of their QM status, the agency clarified. It urged lenders to refer to the CFPB guidance to ensure all their VA loans are ...

The Senate was scheduled to vote late this week on legislation that would delay excessive increases in flood-insurance premiums that are set to take effect as a result of the Biggert-Waters Flood Insurance Reform Act of 2012. Earlier this week, the Senate voted 86 to 13 to move forward with debate on the Homeowner Insurance Affordability Act (S. 1926), a bipartisan bill that was introduced in the Senate and in the House of Representatives to fix some of the ill effects of the Biggert-Waters Act. The vote stopped a filibuster seeking more subsidy cuts to the program. Sponsored by Sens. Robert Menendez, D-NJ, and Johnny Iskason, R-GA, the bill would delay...

One of the complications of the federal government’s takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac has been the injection of uncertainty over whether the two government-sponsored enterprises can foreclose by advertisement due to Uncle Sam’s control of the companies. That has bred some novel legal arguments against the GSEs’ ability in this regard, but they have met with mixed results thus far. “Over the past several months, one of the newer arguments challenging foreclosure by borrowers is...

The fee increases and stiffer mortgage-insurance requirements implemented on FHA mortgages in the past year have helped reduce the agency’s share of originations to first-time homebuyers. First-time homebuyers have traditionally been heavily reliant on FHA financing and that continues to be the case, though the FHA’s dominance has declined significantly in the past year. At the start of 2013, FHA mortgages were used in about one of every two home purchases by a first-time buyer ... [Includes one data chart]