Half of the loans in the Distressed Asset Stabilization Program have been resolved and a significant percentage of homeowners have avoided foreclosure, according to the latest DASP progress report from the Department of Housing and Urban Development. A review of the FHA single-family loan sale (SFLS) program found that, of the 48.6 percent that have been resolved, 43.5 percent have avoided foreclosure. The anticipated alternative for these borrowers – property conveyance, where their property becomes real estate-owned – would have led to foreclosure, the report said. Specifically, short sales and deeds-in-lieu of foreclosure were the disposition methods employed in foreclosure avoidance. In addition, 16.3 percent of resolved loans were re-performing as of Feb. 6, 2015. This reflects a 49.5 percent change in the re-performing rate reported in the ...

Consumer advocates and attorneys are urging the Department of Housing and Urban Development to delay the implementation of a new policy that purports to provide relief to surviving spouses of reverse-mortgage borrowers and to find solutions that are more effective. The group said the policy HUD announced in Mortgagee Letter 2015-03 on Jan. 29 is so restrictive that virtually all surviving non-borrowing spouses will get no relief. A letter to the agency, drafted by the National Consumer Law Center and signed by the Consumers Union, California Reinvestment Coalition, National Housing Law Project, Housing and Economic Rights Advocates and Institute on Aging denounced the new policy. They said most surviving spouses of deceased borrowers of Home Equity Conversion Mortgage loans will not be able to meet the policy’s stringent guidelines and will ...

The FHA’s request for authority to require specialized subservicing in certain circumstances could be included in an appropriations bill rather than in housing-related legislation, according to Sen. Jack Reed, D-RI, ranking minority member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, HUD and other Related Agencies. Reed raised the possibility during a recent hearing on the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s FY 2016 budget proposal. Among other things, the FHA has been seeking authority from Congress to require, in individual cases, inexperienced lender/servicers to transfer the function to a specialized servicer to better assist borrowers and reduce losses to the Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund. Allowing the FHA to require transfer of servicing will help more distressed homeowners stay in their homes and avoid foreclosure, said ...

Private mortgage insurance is generally a better deal than FHA for mortgages with 90 percent or higher loan-to-value ratios, according to a new report from WalletHub, a web-based organization that monitors a variety of financial services. The report also found little variation in pricing in the private MI market based on monthly premiums charged by Genworth Mortgage Insurance Co., Mortgage Guaranty Insurance Corp., Radian Guaranty and Essent Guaranty. Of the four MIs in the study, Essent charged the highest premiums for loans with a 620-679 credit score. For all other FICO scores, the MIs charged uniform premium rates. For 97 percent LTV mortgages with a 620-679 credit score, FHA charged a cheaper monthly premium rate compared to private MIs. For 95 percent LTV and 90 percent LTV loans, the FHA charged monthly payments of $218.29 and $206.80, respectively, compared to ...

Real estate agents have a positive outlook for the spring homebuying season, especially first-time homebuyers, according to the Campbell/Inside Mortgage Finance HousingPulse Tracking Survey. Tom Popik, research director of Campbell Surveys, said homebuyer traffic was higher than expected during the winter and demand from first-time buyers is expected to be strong in the coming months. “Rising interest rates may stimulate the market as homebuyers ...

Over a fifth of the loans securitized last year by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae do not meet one of the key criteria of the qualified-mortgage standard that came into effect in January 2014, and instead rely on an exemption for agency loans. During 2014, the three agencies securitized $198.3 billion of home loans with debt-to-income ratios exceeding 43.0 percent, according to a new Inside MBS & ABS analysis of loan-level disclosure data. That represented 21.5 percent of total MBS issuance by Ginnie and the two government-sponsored enterprises. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau requires...

If a borrower went shopping for a mortgage loan in 2014, he or she would have found FHA insurance costlier than private mortgage insurance even with a 20 percent downpayment, according to a new report from WalletHub, a web-based organization that monitors a variety of financial services. FHA mortgage insurance premiums have nearly doubled since 2008, when conventional loans with private MI grew scarce and FHA became the only game in town for ...

Jumbo mortgage production last year grew its share of total originations to its highest level since well before the financial collapse that launched the era of the “agency jumbo” loan. Mortgage lenders cranked out a total of $291.1 billion of home mortgages with loan balances exceeding the old conforming loan limit of $417,000. Like everything else in mortgages, jumbo production was down from 2013, by 22.4 percent. But total mortgage originations fell...[Includes three data charts]

FHA launched into the new year with a slight dip in forward mortgage loan originations in January from December with nonbanks leading the charge, according to Inside FHA Lending’s analysis of agency data. Lenders originated $11.8 billion in FHA-insured loans in January, a 0.7 percent decrease from December and down 3.5 percent from the prior year. FHA was charging a higher annual mortgage insurance premium of 1.35 percent for most of the month until a 50 basis point reduction, effective Jan. 26, lowered the MIP to 0.85 percent for a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage with a five percent downpayment, and down to 0.80 percent for a similar FHA loan with more than five percent downpayment. The impact of the reduced MIP on February originations is still unclear, but most FHA lenders are expecting a boost in volume because many consumers ... [1 chart]

Agency single-family MBS issuance rose 2.8 percent in February on the back of a huge increase in securitization of seasoned home loans at Freddie Mac, according to a new Inside MBS & ABS ranking and analysis of loan-level MBS data. Fannie Mae MBS issuance fell 3.2 percent from January to February, and Ginnie Mae production was down 12.8 percent. But Freddie Mac issuance jumped by $7.05 billion from January’s level, a gain of 30.8 percent in a month. Freddie securitized...[Includes two data charts]