The Department of Housing and Urban Development has finalized rules that would modernize residential building standards.

Housing Secretary Fudge resigns; IRS postpones controversial changes to IVES; regulators to alter Basel capital proposal; banking regulators waive appraisal requirements in Maui; feedback sought on bank call-report proposal.

Facing criticisms that borrowers would intentionally default to qualify for VA’s upcoming loan-modification program, the agency noted that nearly 90% of its home loan portfolio is at a 2.5% to 3% coupon.

UWM was the top originator of purchase loans for the first nine months of 2023, while Rocket held the lead in refinance lending. The FHA saw a rising share of purchase loans sold to the agencies in the third quarter. (Includes four data tables.)

The FHA Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund remained healthy despite the 30-basis-point cut in insurance premiums earlier this year.

Even as the geographic area of the FEMA-designated 100-year floodplain has expanded, the number of properties considered to be in the floodplain has declined.

Warehouse lender Texas Capital Bank claims it lost money after Ginnie Mae extinguished its interest in liens associated with the now-defunct Reverse Mortgage Funding.

The heads of mortgage industry trade groups are frustrated that the federal government is crowding out non-agency market participants.

In the purchase loans securitized by the agencies in the second quarter, the biggest gain was in GSE loans with no primary MI coverage. (Includes three data charts.)

The Urban Institute wants Fannie and Freddie to view FHA as a partner and share their data and underwriting models to assist in FHA’s mission.