The number of underwater borrowers seeking to refinance their conventional mortgages into an FHA loan fell in fiscal 2014 from the previous year, according to an Inside FHA Lending analysis of agency data. The number of endorsements under the FHA Short Refinance program totaled 1,327 at the end of fiscal 2014, down from a record 1,662 in the prior year. Endorsements hit their peak in fiscal 2013.A total of 5,140 distressed conventional loans with a combined original mortgage amount of $784.9 million were refinanced under the program over the five-year period. In order to participate, borrowers must be current on their mortgage payments, have a credit score of 500 or greater and owe at least 15 percent more on the property than their home is actually worth. Lender participation is strictly voluntary. More importantly, the lender or investor must be ...

Essent EVP to Retire in March. Adolfo Marzol, Essent Guaranty’s executive vice president, will step down, effective March 31, 2015, after five years with the company. VA Hybrid Adjustable-Rate Mortgage Pooling Eligibility. The Department of Veterans Affairs recently expanded the type of loans it will guarantee to include 7/1 and 10/1 hybrid ARMs. While Ginnie Mae’s Mortgage-Backed Securities Guide does not bar the inclusion of hybrid ARMs in Ginnie MBS, GinnieNET is not currently able to process these loans for pool processing. GinnieNET is being updated in order to accommodate VA 7/1 and 10/1 hybrid ARM pooling. Effective with issuances dated on or after Dec. 1, 2014, VA 7/1 and 10/1 hybrid ARMs will be eligible for pooling. CFPB Publishes Revised List of Rural and Underserved Counties. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has published its 2015 list of ...

FHA lenders capped a nine-month production run with a total of $99.39 billion in forward mortgages, thanks to a strong push in the third quarter of 2014, according to Inside FHA Lending’s analysis of agency data. Third-quarter production totaled $38.3 billion, up 16.6 percent from the previous quarter. Year-over-year originations, however, were off by 43.0 percent. FHA endorsements have now fallen from a peak of 1.8 million loans in FY 2009 to approximately 786,000 in FY 2014, according to the latest independent actuarial review of the health of the Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund. The 57 percent reduction in endorsements takes FHA closer to the lower levels of activities seen just prior to the housing bubble, the report noted. A sharp decline in refi activity drove the substantial drop in forward loan endorsements in fiscal 2014. Previously, many homeowners ... [1 chart]

The FHA Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund has improved from a negative position to a positive $4.8 billion in FY 2014 after gaining nearly $6 billion in value over the last year, thanks to aggressive policy actions that led to improvements in key areas, according to an independent actuarial report sent to Congress this week. Overall, the fund showed a $21 billion improvement over the past two years due to changes the FHA implemented following the housing crisis, the report said. The changes led to improved underwriting standards for single-family mortgages, increased mortgage insurance premiums, stronger loss mitigation policies and higher recoveries, it noted. Aggressive policy actions also led...

First-time homebuyers could benefit from mortgages with downpayment requirements as low as 3.0 percent, but high fees on such products tend to limit their originations, according to qualitative survey results from the latest Campbell/Inside Mortgage Finance HousingPulse Tracking Survey. The government-sponsored enterprises are set to roll out products that allow combined loan-to-value ratios as high as 97.0 percent, competing with the 96.5 percent combined LTV ratio limit for certain purchase mortgages guaranteed by the FHA. In recent years, the GSEs generally have allowed for combined LTV ratios as high as 95.0 percent. “Agents commonly believe...

Mortgage delinquencies followed a seasonal trend and rose in the third quarter of 2014, according to the Inside Mortgage Finance Large Servicer Delinquency Index. The Mortgage Bankers Association, however, reported a 19 basis point drop on a seasonally-adjusted basis that put the overall rate at 5.85 percent, the lowest since the financial crisis. The 24 lenders that reported delinquency data to Inside Mortgage Finance had an average delinquency rate of 6.63 percent, up from 6.54 percent in the second quarter. Unadjusted delinquency rates usually spike higher in the third quarter, even in the midst of a downward trend. The delinquency index also showed...[Includes one data chart]

Private mortgage insurers reported hefty increases in the volume of new insurance written during the third quarter of 2014, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance ranking and analysis. The seven active private MIs wrote primary insurance coverage on $53.95 billion of new mortgage originations during the third quarter, a gain of 22.8 percent from the previous period. On a year-to-date basis, total new primary insurance by the MIs was still down 22.4 percent from the first nine months of last year, mostly because activity in the Home Affordable Refinance Program has declined sharply. HARP accounted...[Includes three data charts]

Wells Fargo is in discussions with the Department of Justice about a possible resolution of alleged improper origination and servicing of FHA loans that resulted in huge paid claims and significant losses to the agency’s Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund. The ongoing talks are related to a complaint filed by the government in federal district court in Manhattan on Oct. 9, 2012, alleging, among other things, that Wells Fargo improperly certified FHA mortgages between 2001 and 2010 for insurance even though it knew the underwriting was flawed. The complaint said that the bank’s insurance claims should not have been paid when some of the loans later defaulted. It further alleged that Wells Fargo did not disclose the loans’ deficiencies to the FHA before making insurance claims. On Dec. 1, 2012, Wells Fargo filed...

Income documentation and other standards that have been in place since Fannie Mae entered conservatorship in 2008 will apply to the company’s new 3 percent downpayment product, and loan assessment by a private mortgage insurer will be crucial, according to a company spokesman. The spokesman said details will be announced shortly. Fannie Mae is working with the Federal Housing Finance Agency to design the government-sponsored enterprise’s revamped 97 percent loan-to-value product. Sources said previous requirements for a standard 97 LTV product, which Fannie offered until November 2013, are being considered. The FHFA announced...

The Department of Housing and Urban Development will not take on the new points-and-fees cure provision for qualified mortgages adopted by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The agency is concerned that lenders might inadvertently violate the FHA’s statutory 3.5 percent downpayment requirement. HUD adopted other changes in the CFPB’s revised final rule on ability to repay and qualified mortgages (ATR/QM) to maintain consistency but saw no need for any further ability to cure points-and-fees errors. Reimbursement of any excess points and fees to the borrower could take away from the mandatory 3.5 percent downpayment and render the loan ineligible for FHA insurance, the agency explained in a notice published in the Nov. 3 Federal Register. HUD said it would provide lender guidance under its own QM rule on ...