But what about Watt? His term as director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency ends in early 2019...

The Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Department of Veterans Affairs have taken additional steps to provide relief to homeowners in disaster areas hit by hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria. This week, the FHA issued policy waivers in storm-ravaged Puerto Rico and fire-stricken counties in California, allowing damage inspections to be completed beginning Oct. 24. FHA currently requires servicers to perform a damage inspection following the close of an “incident period” as determined by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. An incident period is the period For mortgages in disaster areas that have not closed or are pending endorsement, lenders must follow FHA’s guidelines on inspection and repair escrow requirements for loans in such areas. FHA believes that situations in certain jurisdictions in Puerto Rico and California have stabilized and further damage to ...

One dealmaker, requesting anonymity, added: “Why not just sell servicing on eBay? There are reasons the market for servicing is wired as it is.”

Some history: When GMAC imploded earlier in the decade, some of its GSE servicing rights were sold to Ocwen. Ocwen eventually sold those contracts to Nationstar.

Officials from the Department of Housing and Urban Development and Fannie Mae made lender-friendly announcements this week at the Mortgage Bankers Association’s annual convention, while Melvin Watt, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, focused on some issues that he acknowledged might not be popular with lenders. HUD Secretary Ben Carson said the department is working to make lenders more comfortable originating FHA mortgages. “We have heard ...

Despite opposition from industry members worried about legal implications, the Federal Housing Finance Agency decided to add a language-preference question to a redesigned loan application that will be required for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans in February 2020. On Oct. 20, the FHFA announced that the question will be added to the loan application to enable borrowers who prefer to communicate in a language other than English to identify that language. The Fannie/Freddie regulator also ...

Look for any principles on GSE reform to avoid specificity so as not to box-in legislation being drafted in Congress…

The megabanks shed a combined $48.75 billion of GSE servicing during the third quarter…

Homebuilder finance is booming at Flagstar Bancorp...

MBA chief Dave Stevens: “What happens if the president nominates a new [FHFA] director who thinks the government role in mortgage finance is too large and wants to scale it back?"