Industry participants who track various FHA data, including Home Equity Conversion Mortgage loans and Neighborhood Watch compare ratios, may have noticed delays in their postings. For example, the latest available data for HECM originations was in September, the end of fiscal year 2012, and no updates have been posted since. David Stevens, president and chief executive officer of the Mortgage Bankers Association, also wondered why Neighborhood Watch was down. He suspected lack of funding. A Department of Housing and Urban Development spokesman explained that the FHA’s reporting timelines and procedures are undergoing ...

The Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs will continue focusing on FHA solvency as part of its legislative agenda for the 113th Congress and has called a hearing next week to try to reach some bipartisan agreement on FHA reform. In a memorandum, Committee Chairman Tim Johnson, D-SD, said ensuring the health of the FHA Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund is one of committee’s top priorities in sustaining and strengthening the nation’s economic recovery. Johnson said the committee will continue to conduct oversight on the condition of the FHA insurance fund and the role the FHA plays in the housing market as part of ...

The Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of the Inspector General has alerted the FHA of significant potential losses because a California-based direct endorsement lender allowed certain FHA-insured loans with prohibited restrictive covenants to be recorded. An OIG audit of 84 FHA-insured loans underwritten by Standard Pacific Mortgage of Irvine, CA, found 28 loans with unallowable restrictive covenants that were recorded in certain Florida and Arizona county registers. The loans were closed between Jan. 1, 2008, and Dec. 31, 2011, the OIG said. Of the 28 loans, 15 resulted in ...

NCOA Booklet Required Reading for HECM Borrowers. The National Council on Aging has announced the availability of the 2013 version of “Use Your Home to Stay at Home,”, the official reverse mortgage booklet approved by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The booklet is designed to help older homeowners understands the pros and cons of a reverse mortgage. Federal law requires that all individuals who are considering a reverse mortgage go through pre-counseling by a HUD-approved counseling agency and receive a copy of the NCOA guide. The NCOA also offers other ...

Fiscal 2012 turned out to be a stellar year for the Department of Veterans Affairs Home Loan Guaranty program with $119.23 billion in total loan volume, thanks largely to surging streamlined VA refinancing as well as conversions from FHA and conventional loans. A total of 539,884 new single-family mortgage loans with a VA guaranty were originated in 2012, up 59.12 percent from the prior fiscal year, according to the latest VA data. VA originations have been trending upward since 2010, when the agency reported $65.05 billion in new originations. Volume was largely driven...

Look for the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee under a Democrat majority to focus over the next two years on assuring a smooth implementation of the Dodd-Frank Act, stabilizing the housing market and building a “bipartisan consensus” on housing finance reform, according to the committee’s chairman. “From protecting consumers and taxpayers from Wall Street abuses, to providing the Federal Housing Administration with additional tools to manage its finances while continuing to serve American families, I believe we can find common ground,” said Sen. Tim Johnson, D-SD, chairman. The committee will continue...

Private mortgage insurers in 2012 posted their best year since the financial market collapse back in 2008 and suddenly – after being largely left as roadkill in the government’s bailout program – are attracting new capital. Private MIs reported $174.81 billion in total new insurance written in 2012, more than doubling the amount of business they did the year before, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance ranking and analysis. With the FHA and VA programs growing at a more deliberate pace, it boosted the private MI share of the primary mortgage insurance market to 32.0 percent, up from 22.7 percent in 2011. A significant part of the private MI rebound came...[Includes three data charts]

FHA Commissioner Carol Galante fended off attacks by Republicans on the House Financial Services Committee this week, saying that the actual performance of the FHA single-family program over the course of FY 2013 and steps the agency takes during this period will determine whether the agency will need more cash to pay claims. In her first congressional appearance since her Senate confirmation in late December, Galante tried to assure critics that the FHA may not have to borrow from the U.S. Treasury to boost its claims-paying ability if the proposed budget President Obama releases next month does not show a shortfall. In last year’s proposed 2012 budget, the president anticipated...

With the White House budget delayed until sometime in March, there is renewed speculation that the Department of Housing and Urban Development will not ask for a draw from the Treasury Department to bolster the cash-starved Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund of the FHA. In testimony this week before the House Financial Services Committee FHA Commissioner Carol Galante said underwriting changes and premium hikes have decreased the likelihood that the MMI will request additional cash. But she could not say for certain, noting that if a draw is needed it will not come until the end of fiscal 2013. Mortgage insurance professionals and consulting firms that work on HUD issues have estimated...

CFPB Director to Testify Before Senate Panel. CFPB Director Richard Cordray is among a number of federal financial regulators scheduled to testify the morning of Thursday, Feb. 14, 2013, before the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee on the subject, “Wall Street Reform: Oversight of Financial Stability and Consumer and Investor Protections.” This will be Cordray’s first appearance before Congress since the Canning v. National Labor Relations Board decision was issued by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. FHA Chief to...