The lift in jumbo mortgage production during the third quarter of 2013 came from the non-agency segment of the market, while new originations of “conforming jumbo” loans faltered, according to a new analysis and ranking by Inside Mortgage Finance. Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the FHA financed $25.48 billion in single-family loans that exceeded $417,000 during the third quarter, down 15.5 percent from the second quarter. Meanwhile, non-agency jumbo originations edged up 2.7 percent during the third quarter, hitting a six-year high. The strength of the non-agency jumbo market at a time when securitization of these loans has slowed...[Includes three data charts]

The National Association of Independent Housing Professionals is maneuvering to sue the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau over broker disclosure of lender-paid compensation under the new ability-to-repay rule, but has yet to green-light an actual filing, pending a needed fundraiser, Inside Mortgage Finance has learned. “The CFPB is an independent agency with no oversight. From their inception on July 21, 2011, they have continually used their authority to pick winners and losers, causing unprecedented harm to consumers, mortgage brokers, loan originators, appraisers and other small-business housing professionals,” the organization said in a fund-raising appeal. “In order to stop these anti-consumer, anti-competition, job-killing rules, NAIHP is filing suit.” In its fundraising pitch, the group noted...

House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling does not have the votes needed to pass the Protecting American Taxpayers and Homeowners Act in the House and, unless he is willing to be flexible on certain key issues, the package may not reach the House floor at all in this Congress, according to industry lobbyists. Talk that Hensarling, R-TX, may make another push to get the PATH Act to the House floor surfaced this week following an opinion piece he published in the Nov. 27 issue of the Washington Times. In that op-ed, the chairman focused on the bill’s FHA reform component. Hensarling underscored...

Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae still provide most of the funding for home loans originated in 2013, but the non-agency sector has been making a stealthy comeback, according to a new analysis and ranking by Inside Mortgage Finance. Conventional-conforming loan production declined by 24.5 percent from the second quarter of 2013 to the third quarter, dropping to an estimated $275.0 billion. Although that still accounted for 59.8 percent of total production for the period, it was the lowest quarterly volume in conventional-conforming lending since the third quarter of 2011. Government-insured lending continued...[Includes two data charts]

Tax forgiveness enacted by Congress in 2007 for mortgage-debt relief is scheduled to expire at the end of this year. In a similar scenario last year, Congress agreed to a one-year extension of the tax break, but analysts are less certain that Congress will pass another extension in the weeks ahead. The Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act of 2007 exempts borrowers from federal tax obligations for debt forgiven via principal-reduction loan modifications and short sales. Congress has twice extended the deadline for the expiration of the tax break. “Policymakers have expressed...

The fallout from last week’s trigger of the “nuclear option” by Senate Democrats, which is expected to lead to the confirmation of President Obama’s choice to be the new director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, has analysts worried about the possibility of expanded Home Affordable Refinance Program eligibility. The Senate voted to confirm most executive and judicial nominees by a simple majority vote, and it dramatically improves the prospects of Rep. Mel Watt, D-NC, to replace FHFA Acting Director Edward DeMarco. A career civil servant who has been the chief regulator of the government-sponsored enterprises for the past four years, DeMarco has resisted proposals to expand HARP and broaden the GSE loan-modification options to include principal write-downs. Expanding HARP has been...[Includes one data chart]

Many condominium properties continue to struggle to meet stringent FHA requirements while many condo projects are being denied approval despite the easing of FHA approval requirements in recent years. Panelists at a recent National Association of Realtors conference in New Orleans said condos are often the most affordable homeownership option for first-time homebuyers, single borrowers and senior citizens, especially when purchased with FHA financing. Condominium loans are among the strongest performing loans in the FHA portfolio, they added. However, FHA data show that ...

Imprecise rules, triple-damage claims and increasingly political enforcement of agency rules could make it more dangerous for lenders to do business with the FHA than to originate non-qualified mortgage loans, according to a top compliance expert. Larry Platt, a partner with K&L Gates, said that when lenders originate and underwrite FHA loans they are subjected to rules that are unevenly applied and politically enforced. It is a prescription for a financial bloodbath, especially if you add to it the False Claims Act and the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act, he added. Throwing the Department of Justice into the mix ...

The regulatory regime currently contemplated in government-sponsored enterprise reform legislation in the Senate doesn’t go far enough, according to officials at the Federal Housing Finance Agency and others. At a hearing this week by the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, Alfred Pollard, general counsel at the FHFA, testified that the regulatory functions included in GSE reform legislation from Sens. Bob Corker, R-TN, and Mark Warner, D-VA, should be enhanced. “Making regulatory authority clear and explicit, including where appropriate the ability to establish prudential standards, set capital requirements and take enforcement actions, would enhance...

Any policies employed by federal regulators that restrict mortgage lending in localities that use eminent domain to seize underwater mortgages would violate anti-discrimination laws, according to a group of House Democrats. In letters to two government agencies, a group of 10 Democrat lawmakers led by Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison said the Federal Housing Finance Agency should continue to provide access to government-sponsored enterprise MBS guaranties and the Department of Housing and Urban Development should allow FHA mortgage insurance in such communities. “To deny such access would be illegal under the Fair Housing Act and would violate credit discrimination laws,” according to a draft of the letters obtained by Inside MBS & ABS. An FHFA spokesman confirmed...