Correction: There was an error in the total number reported for Home Equity Conversion Mortgage originations in 2015 in the March 17, 2017, issue of Inside FHA/VA Lending. The correct total is $16.0 billion. HUD Secretary Ben Carson Visits Dallas/Ft. Worth. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson continued his national listening tour this week in Dallas/Ft. Worth to learn more about HUD’s public housing programs. Carson embarked on a national listening tour March 15 at a Detroit high school bearing his name President Trump recently released his proposed preliminary FY 2018 budget, which showed among other things a drastic $6.2 billion reduction in funding for public housing assistance and affordable housing. Carson said the discretionary budget plan promotes fiscal responsibility at HUD by “promoting better efficiencies and ...

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac “made significant progress” in meeting the goals of their conservatorships for 2016, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Most of the objectives set by the so-called scorecard were focused on testing new concepts or perfecting existing ones, and relatively few of them had hard targets in terms of business volume. A first strategic goal for the government-sponsored enterprises was to maintain credit availability, including increasing access to credit. There has been barely any change in the credit profile of the two GSEs’ business, and the regulator did not set any specific goals other than the affordable housing goals. And some critics would argue that the FHFA hasn’t done much to encourage more risk taking in that it has held guarantee fees steady. Last year, both Fannie and Freddie started...

With the topic of regulatory reform experiencing a resurgence of attention since the Trump administration moved into the White House, the U.S. mortgage insurance industry is calling for greater uniformity when it comes to the nitty gritty details of the ability-to-repay rule and its qualified-mortgage standard. One area of particular concern for mortgage insurers is the differences between the CFPB’s QM rule for conventional mortgages and the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s QM rule for FHA-insured mortgages. These differences include different debt-to-income caps, different formulae to calculate points and fees, and different standards for higher-cost mortgages. According to U.S. Mortgage Insurers, these differences incentivize greater reliance on programs of the U.S. government, increasing risk to taxpayers. “While consistency and ...

Congress should pass legislation setting uniform standards for qualified mortgages, according to the U.S. Mortgage Insurers trade group. USMI raised particular concerns about differences in the points-and-fees calculation for FHA mortgages compared with the standard for mortgages delivered to the government-sponsored enterprises. As required by the Dodd-Frank Act, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau established standards for QMs. Certain federal regulators, including the Department of Housing and Urban Development, were allowed to implement QM standards that differed from the CFPB standards. USMI noted...

Solicitation of VA purchase loans for streamline refinancing within weeks of closing is apparently continuing despite Ginnie Mae’s efforts to stop the harmful practice. The Mortgage Bankers Association has expressed concern that guidance on pooling eligibility for streamlined refinance loans, which Ginnie issued in October last year, was far less effective than expected. Although the aggressive refinancing trend has slowed due to Ginnie’s action, there are still “pockets of that activity” being reported, said Pete Mills, MBA senior vice president. Refinancing a veteran’s purchase mortgage less than six months after its origination is not in the vet’s best interest because it strips equity from the house and results in higher financing costs, said Mills. While the rapid refi trend involves only a small number of loans in Ginnie mortgage-backed securities pools, investors do not get the full benefit of their investment because of early prepayment. Mills said there are a handful of lenders and brokers that ...

HUD Secretary Ben Carson Launches National Listening Tour in Detroit. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson began a national listening tour March 15 at Benjamin Carson High School in Detroit. Carson’s three-day visit to his hometown gives him an opportunity to hear directly from HUD field personnel and stakeholders who rely upon and support public housing. This week, President Trump released his proposed preliminary FY 2018 budget, which showed among other things a drastic $6.2 billion reduction in funding for public housing assistance and affordable housing. HUD did not release an itinerary of Carson’s listening tour. IG Seeks Changes to Ginnie Mae’s Management Hierarchy, Staffing. Ginnie Mae’s outdated organizational structure and staff levels have made it difficult for the agency to properly monitor and mitigate the risk posed by the increasing number of nonbanks participating in ...

A borrower seeking cancellation of private mortgage insurance prevailed last week in a lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase. The appeals court noted that federal law regarding standards for MI cancellation overrides Fannie Mae’s servicing guidelines. The case of Ginnine Fried v. JPMorgan Chase centers on how to calculate a borrower’s loan-to-value ratio when allowing for MI cancellation after the LTV ratio falls below 80.0 percent. The borrower filed...

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could have a harder time recapitalizing if their deferred tax assets are negatively impacted by corporate tax reform, according to one GSE spectator. The Trump administration said it plans to restructure taxes before housing reform. Industry observers, like former Fannie Mae CFO Tim Howard, speculate on what impact that would have on Fannie and Freddie. Howard said that putting housing reform behind tax reform adds a “complication to the task of ultimately recapitalizing the companies, should that be what [Treasury Secretary Steven] Mnuchin chooses to do.” Mnuchin recently made public comments on network news stating that while housing reform is one of his priorities, it’s going to take more time.

Secretary Ben Carson may not yet have a clear agenda and a set of priorities for the Department of Housing and Urban Development over the next four years, but the House Financial Services Committee appears to have identified changes that Republican lawmakers want to see at the agency. A HUD spokesman said Carson will embark next week on a nationwide “listening” tour of certain communities and HUD field offices to learn more about the agency he leads, FHA programs and the mortgage insurance fund he oversees. On March 2, Vice President Mike Pence swore...

Late last month, Fairholme Capital chief Bruce Berkowitz sent out a press release reassuring his shareholders that the hedge fund’s bet on owning the junior preferred stock of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will prevail, eventually. Among other things, the veteran equity-fund manager extolled the government-sponsored enterprises’ massive fourth quarter profits of almost $10 billion, called them “indispensable” to the mortgage insurance industry and reminded readers they continue to fulfill “their historic role of insuring adequate levels of liquidity to lenders of all sizes.” He also mentioned...