The Internal Revenue Service is preparing to launch an industry-wide review of housing counseling agencies, including those approved by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, as well as other tax-exempt entities that provide mortgage foreclosure assistance, compliance experts warned. In fact, the IRS has started looking at providers that have applied for tax-exempt status in recent months and has denied three organizations in February 2013 alone, according to attorneys with the Washington, DC, law firm Venable. Housing counseling agencies can use the issues raised in the “private letter” rulings as a ...

A federal employee union and the Department of Housing and Urban Development have agreed to implement a seven-day employee furlough because of a severe mandatory reduction in HUD’s budget in FY 2013. The seven furlough days, which also will affect FHA operations, will apply to HUD’s entire 9,100-person work force and will be spread out to one for each pay period beginning May 24. HUD initially proposed a 13-day furlough plan, which was to start May 10, but agreed to reduce it to seven days and to move the start date to May 24. Under an agreement between HUD and the American Federation of Government Employees Council 222, furlough days will occur on ...

Some underwriters in the private mortgage insurance space are rolling out new technology in their efforts to reacquire market share lost to the FHA even as market tidal forces continue to shift in favor of private MIs. Radian Guaranty, a subsidiary of Radian Group, has introduced its MI rate finder application, Radian Rates, for Android smart phone devices on Google Play. Designed as a mobile version of the company’s existing online rate finder, Radian Rates checks eligibility, compares options and automatically calculates the MI rate depending on the ...

Quicken is buying a large MSR portfolio from the government-owned Ally Bank and more deals may be in the works.

The FHFA IG, in a new report, is critical of how Freddie Mac is managing its services regarding consumer complaints.

Fannie Mae’s delay in releasing its 2012 earnings underscores the sharp turnaround in the con-servatorships of the two government-sponsored enterprises, which lately have begun spewing earnings like the good old days.Freddie Mac, which managed to get its reporting done on time, recorded a whopping $16.0 bil-lion in net income last year, and there’s widespread speculation that Fannie Mae will beat that mark with room to spare.

Look for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to continue to increase their guaranty fees, but the current level of g-fees is approaching “striking distance” of the threshold expected in a competitive private market, the head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency told lawmakers this week.Testifying before the House Financial Services Committee, FHFA Acting Director Edward De-Marco said last year’s two 10 basis point g-fee increases raised the average fee to around 50 bps, double where they were when the GSEs were put in conservatorship in September 2008.

Can Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac capture $93 billion in deferred tax assets - money that ultimately will flow through to the U.S. Treasury?

Is the refinancing boom finally over? Some mortgage bankers are beginning to get nervous.

Genworth is losing a top MI executive to a mortgage servicer. And more woes for Chimera...