The Department of Veterans Affairs has issued a clarification for non-borrower spouses on VA title documents, which apparently has created some confusion when lenders try to foreclose on VA-backed properties. VA is aware that lenders occasionally make loans to veterans who wish to use their home loan benefit to purchase a home and include their spouse in ownership, but the spouse does not wish to be on the mortgage loan. Including the spouse on the deed but not on the mortgage note can create a problem if the VA loan goes into foreclosure because the non-borrowing spouse’s ownership in the property could defeat the foreclosure action, the VA explained. “Delaying or preventing a foreclosure increases foreclosure claim cost to the government and the veteran,” the agency said. According to the VA guidance, when a loan is originated that includes a ...

Reading about prospective homebuyers’ experiences in trying to obtain a new FHA loan after emerging from a Chapter 7 (liquidation) bankruptcy reveals a great lack of understanding of FHA bankruptcy guidelines. Potential homebuyers apparently are concerned because they have been hearing different required waiting periods. The waiting periods in these stories vary from two to three years, and some were told to start counting from the sheriff sale date rather than from the bankruptcy discharge date. According to the FHA’s 2016 guidelines for bankruptcy, a Chapter 7 bankruptcy does not disqualify a borrower from seeking FHA financing after hardship if, at the time of case-number assignment, at least two years have elapsed since the date of the bankruptcy discharge. During the two-year period, the borrower must have re-established good credit by making ...

The Department of Veterans Affairs has posted a chart on its web site showing the revised maximum allowable foreclosure timeframes for each state in 2016. State foreclosure timeframes are used in calculating the maximum interest payable on a foreclosure of a VA loan. They are subject to annual reviews and revised as needed. The chart reflects maximum allowable foreclosure periods that include the 210 calendar days for unpaid interest as well as foreclosure periods without the 210 days. Specifically, the chart shows timeframes the VA has determined to be “reasonable and customary” for all states, following an annual review of amounts allowed by other government-related home loan programs, such as FHA, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The chart also lists the maximum amounts that will be paid on a claim processed in the ...

Interactive Mortgage Advisors is auctioning off $3.02 billion in Ginnie Mae residential mortgage-servicing rights for an undisclosed client. According to IMA, the seller is a “well-known, independent mortgage banker with very strong net worth and well-versed in servicing transfers.” The loans are being sub-serviced by LoanCare. The MSR package consists of 17,989 loans – FHA (15,288) and VA (2,610) – with an average loan size of $168,886. The yield on the underlying mortgages is 4.069 percent. The service fee is 0.2917 percent. An estimated 8.92 percent of all loans in the deal are delinquent. Approximately 3.07 percent of the loans are either in bankruptcy or in foreclosure. The top states in the transaction are Texas, which accounted for 11.4 percent of all loans; California, 9.6 percent; Florida, 8.1 percent; and New York, 5.8 percent. The deadline for ...

The first rated securitization backed by nonperforming Home Equity Conversion Mortgage loans contains strong, credit-positive features that outweigh the credit risk associated with nonperforming loans, according to a Moody’s Investors Service analysis. The effect of some of these positive features on the performance of Nationstar HECM Loan Trust 2015-2, however, depends on whether Nationstar Mortgage remains as servicer for the transaction, said the rating agency. Nationstar has a servicer rating of B2/Stable from Moody’s and is also the transaction’s sponsor. Nationstar issued NHLT 2015-2 in November 2015 and by the end of December, the first remittance report showed strong initial performance. Credit enhancement to the Aaa (sf)-rated notes increased by 1.69 percent in the first month of operations, Moody’s noted. “As long as Nationstar continues to be the ...

The volume of home loans with private mortgage insurance that were securitized by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac dropped 17.1 percent from the third to the fourth quarter of last year, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance analysis and ranking. That’s not so bad, given that total mortgage-backed securities production by the two government-sponsored enterprises was down 19.9 percent during the last three months of 2015. The GSEs securitized ... [Includes two data charts]

Mortgage industry representatives are meeting this week with Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Richard Cordray in another attempt to squeeze out additional clarification to help lenders comply with the bureau’s integrated disclosure rule, which took effect Oct. 3, 2015. The ambiguity and confusion engendered by the rule continues to contribute to mortgage closing delays throughout the country, according to many top industry officials. Executives of the Independent Community Bankers of America were scheduled...

Quicken Loans is considering its next move – possibly a change of litigation venue – following last week’s ruling by a Michigan federal district court dismissing the lender’s lawsuit against the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Justice Department for failure to state a claim. The lawsuit, which challenged the DOJ’s use of the False Claim Act and HUD’s use of statistical sampling in post-endorsement loan reviews, was filed in April 2015, a week before the DOJ sued Quicken for allegedly filing false claims on FHA mortgages and other violations. Quicken’s lawsuit claimed...

A surge in sales of mortgage servicing rights by banks to nonbanks is likely over, according to industry analysts. As regulatory oversight remains a concern, the use of subservicing is expected to increase, with troubled loans handled by specialists. “The frequency of MSR transfers will remain low, even though buyer interest in MSR transfers may rise from 2015 levels,” according to analysts at Moody’s Investors Service. Analysts at Bank of America Merrill Lynch added...

Investors should see a higher share of VA collateral in Ginnie Mae mortgage-backed securities pools due to increasing VA loan originations, according to Deutsche Bank analysts. Given their rising share of VA collateral, new Ginnie pools are likely to have worse convexity than most of those originated in 2015, analysts said. “VA loans tend to prepay faster than FHA loans when in the money as VA loans have larger loan sizes, higher FICO scores and a more efficient streamline refi program that requires a minimum three months seasoning,” they observed. In addition, analysts expect the population of younger veterans to surge approximately 36 percent over the next five years. “[As such], there will be a healthy supply of new VA originations eligible for pooling,” they said. As a result, the share of FHA relative to VA collateral in new Ginnie II pools will likely decrease, they said. Such a trend has manifested itself slowly as ...