VA loan servicers are now required to request a redemption quote from the agency’s property management contractor, Vendor Resource Management (VRM), to avoid any confusion in the future about such quotes. In recently issued guidance, the VA established standard procedures for redeeming VA property, after foreclosure, in states that allow “statutory redemption.” Statutory redemption refers to a borrower’s right to regain ownership of his or her home that has been foreclosed. Statutory redemption laws allow the borrower a limited amount of time to redeem their property if they are able to buy it back at the price for which it was sold at foreclosure. The redemption window varies by state and ranges from 30 days to 2 years. At the time of redemption, the entire underlying mortgage debt plus interest, foreclosure fees and other costs are due. In most cases, the servicer has ...

New entrants in the Ginnie Mae issuer community expand access to credit at lower cost, deepen the market for Ginnie mortgage servicing rights and help address the agency’s “too-big-to-fail” issue, said the agency’s top executive. “Our top concern is that issuers have the operational and financial strength to meet issuer/servicer obligations,” Tozer said during the recent secondary market conference sponsored by the Mortgage Bankers Association. The flood of new nonbank issuers into the program has been well documented. While they have diluted the heavy concentration of business in the hands of a few megabanks, many have complex financial structures that are less tested in the marketplace, he said. The pipeline of issuer applicants has dropped dramatically, the Ginnie executive reported. To get approved, an applicant has to show where the cash will come from to ...

Genworth U.S. Mortgage Insurance said the FHA mortgage insurance premium reduction earlier this year has not had much of an impact on private MI business so far in terms of creating more competition. “I would say competition with FHA is about the same,” said Rohit Gupta, president and CEO of Genworth. “We have seen the FHA price reduction actually having more impact on FHA streamline refis. Borrowers who have gotten into FHA loans three years ago are refinancing into another FHA loan just to reduce their annual payment.” In January, the FHA pared its annual MIP from 1.35 percent down to 0.85 percent to win over first-time homebuyers and other qualified borrowers. While Gupta emphasized that on the purchase side there hasn’t been that big of an impact yet, he said “we might have seen a little bit of an impact in the first quarter but nothing significant yet.” He added there are a lot more ...

FHA Releases Planned System Enhancements for SF Policy Handbook. The FHA is providing an overview of the FHA Connection (FHAC) system enhancements to help lenders get ready before the Single-Family Policy Handbook’s Sept. 14, 2015, effective date. The system enhancements primarily affect three screens in the FHAC case assignments, appraisal logging and insurance application. In the coming weeks, FHA plans to provide technical details for entities using direct interface with FHAC. FHA Announces Availability of Recorded Training Modules for SF Policy Handbook. FHA-approved mortgagees may now use new-recorded training modules to guide them through the ...

The Department of Housing and Urban Development is seeking comment on proposed changes to FHA’s loan certification document to make it less likely for direct-endorsement lenders to be sued for loan fraud over a technical glitch or an unintentional oversight. Language in Form 92900-A (HUD Addendum to Uniform Residential Loan Application), a loan-certification document signed by lenders, has been revised to reflect updated provisions in the new HUD Single Family Policy Handbook, a compendium of FHA policies and guidelines. The proposed changes would differentiate...

Mortgage originations are already off to a better start in 2015, and industry economists are predicting, on average, a 15 percent increase from last year’s sluggish output. But uncertain prospects in the housing market point toward a decline in mortgage originations next year, according to forecasters at the secondary market conference sponsored this week by the Mortgage Bankers Association. 2015 should bring the strongest housing sales volume since 2007, said Leonard Kiefer, deputy chief economist at Freddie Mac. Sales activity was decent over the winter, despite severe weather in many areas, but the market has yet to get back to normal. Freddie looks...[Includes one data table]

Seven months ago, a fledgling nonprime lender called Deephaven Mortgage unveiled a $300 million investment in the firm by a global “alternative” hedge fund called Varde Partners, Minneapolis. But since then, not much has been heard about Deephaven. Then again, it might be said that the “new” nonprime industry is still trying to figure out how to operate in a world of tight regulation, non-QM lending and a securitization market that doesn’t want to touch its product. Matt Nichols, the former Goldman Sachs managing director who formed Deephaven two years ago, did not respond...

The conventional-conforming sector led the mortgage market’s surge in production volume during the first quarter of 2015, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance ranking and analysis. Lenders originated an estimated $207 billion of conventional-conforming mortgages during the first three months of this year, an 18.3 percent increase from the fourth quarter of 2014. The conventional-conforming sector accounted for 57.5 percent of the $360 billion in overall mortgage originations during the period. The $360 billion is a revision of our initial estimate and does not include home-equity lending. The government and jumbo markets were...[Includes two data tables]

Separate lawsuits against major banks were dismissed last week, providing some insight on how lenders and servicers can defend against claims brought by consumer advocates under the False Claims Act and allegations of redlining and reverse redlining. In 2013, Advocates for Basic Legal Equality alleged that U.S. Bank’s servicing practices violated the FCA. U.S. District Court Judge Jack Zouhary dismissed the lawsuit, noting that the claims were barred by the “public disclosure doctrine.” Larry Platt, a partner at the law firm of K&L Gates, said...

The first-time homebuyer share of home purchases in April hit its highest level in more than four years, according to the Campbell/Inside Mortgage Finance’s HousingPulse Tracking Survey. The purchases have been boosted by a reduction in the FHA’s mortgage insurance premiums and help rebut concerns about the demise of the first-time homebuyer. First-time homebuyers accounted for 37.6 percent of home purchases in April, up from a 34.3 percent share a year ago, based on three-month moving averages. The last time the first-time homebuyer share of home purchases was above 37.6 percent was in August 2010 at a 40.0 percent share. Tom Popik, research director of Campbell Surveys, said...