Investors have significantly reduced their home-purchase activity in recent months, according to the latest Campbell/Inside Mortgage Finance HousingPulse Tracking Survey. Current homeowners and first-time homebuyers have filled the void and are much more likely to finance a home purchase with a mortgage compared to investors. Investors accounted for 20.2 percent of home purchases in May, based on the three-month moving average, the third consecutive decline in investor share. Market share for both current homeowners and first-time homebuyers increased in recent months, with current homeowners accounting for 43.8 percent of home purchases in May. The trends present...

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would be wound down and terminated in the housing finance system of the future that combines greater private sector participation with a clearly delineated emergency government backstop, according to a reform plan released this week by four industry experts. Sponsored by the Milken Institute, the Urban Institute and Moody’s Analytics, the “Pragmatic Plan for Housing Finance Reform” would see the government play an “explicit and transparent” role to cover catastrophic losses but with an emphasis on mortgage funding diversity. The authors envision...

The American Bankers Association asked the CFPB for more detailed guidance on the “temporary qualified mortgage” for government-sponsored enterprise and agency mortgage loans. Earlier this year, the bureau proposed some amendments to its mortgage rules under the Real Estate Settlement and Procedures Act and the Truth in Lending Act. Among them are some proposed revised commentaries regarding the standards that a creditor must meet when relying upon a written guide or the automated underwriting system of one of the GSEs, the...

The FHA and the Department of Justice have ramped up enforcement actions against more than a dozen mortgage lenders in recent weeks for alleged agency rule violations. At least two of the lenders have received notices from the DOJ that they are in violation of the False Claims Act. According to the Collingwood Group, a Washington-based business advisory firm, the agencies have sent notices of enforcement or “administrative” actions to as many as 15 FHA direct endorsement (DE) lenders, some of whom could lose their DE status if found to have engaged in improper lending practices that resulted in huge losses for the FHA. The latest enforcement actions have ...

The Department of Veterans Affairs is planning to raise the residual income limit requirement for home loan applicants by 15 percent – a move that could shut out many veterans who have limited income. The proposal is one of several measures under consideration for the VA’s Home Loan Program, said Carol Barnard, a loan production officer in the VA Regional Loan Center in Denver, during a recent webinar hosted by the Collingwood Group, a Washington-based advisory firm. Barnard is also a senior consultant with Collingwood. This change means that, for a family of four in the VA’s Northeast region, the required income residual could jump to ... [1 chart]

The Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of the Inspector General is drafting legislative recommendations to strengthen the FHA’s ability to mitigate risk and recover losses to the insurance fund. Testifying recently before Senate appropriators, HUD Inspector General David Montoya said he strongly agrees with HUD on the need for legislation to help the FHA act more quickly and decisively in response to market changes and avoid losses that can accrue during a long rulemaking process. He said the FHA has been too slow in addressing its financial problems. Based on past experience with the FHA over the years, Montoya said ...

Rep. Darrell Issa, R-CA, chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, is planning to quiz top FHA officials about an apparently deliberate effort by the agency to withhold important information from Congress regarding the true financial health of the FHA insurance fund. In a recent letter to FHA Commissioner Carol Galante, Issa said that the stress test employed by Integrated Financial Engineering in its FY 2012 actuarial review of the FHA Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund yielded a more troubling result than what HUD reported to Congress in November last year. In the actuarial review, IFE reported that ...

Wells Fargo has reached an agreement with the Department of Housing and Urban Development and fair housing advocacy groups to improve its handling of foreclosed and abandoned homes and resolve allegations of discrimination in the maintenance and marketing of real estate-owned properties. The National Fair Housing Alliance and several other fair housing groups filed a complaint with HUD in April last year after observing that Wells’ foreclosed homes in minority neighborhoods did not receive the same treatment and care as the bank’s REO properties in white neighborhoods. The NFHA, which conducted an ...

The Department of Housing and Urban Development and the reverse mortgage lending industry lauded the U.S. House of Representatives this week for passing bipartisan legislation that would allow the agency to make immediate, necessary changes to the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage Program while working simultaneously on implementing regulations. H.R. 2167, the Reverse Mortgage Stabilization Act of 2012, passed by voice vote after it was added to the House “suspension” calendar, which limits debate on noncontroversial bills for quick passage. Co-sponsored by Reps. Denny Heck, D-WA, and Mike Fitzpatrick, R-PA, the bill responds ...

The likelihood of new loans exceeding the statutory “high-priced mortgage loan” (HPML) threshold due to a recent policy change relating to FHA mortgage insurance premium payments is causing uneasiness among some lenders, said an industry trade group. This week, the Consumer Mortgage Coalition warned that lenders might not originate FHA-insured loans if they thought the new MIP policy would cause the mortgages to turn into HPMLs and subject them to increased liability. Specifically, the new MIP policy might prevent ...