The Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee next week is expected to push officials from Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Housing Finance Agency on controversial pilot programs that have drawn the ire of certain industry factions.
The mortgage banking industry is optimistic about Congress enacting legislation that would cure VA orphan loans before the midterm elections. The U.S. Senate still has time to consider H.R. 6737, the Protect Affordable Mortgages for Veterans Act, according to Bill Kilmer, chief lobbyist at the Mortgage Bankers Association. “Most observers think [lawmakers are] going to be around until Oct. 18 or 19, which is when Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he wants to keep folks around to work on nominations and other measures they need to clear,” Kilmer said. “There is time and, more to the substantive point, the bill passed the House.” H.R. 6737 would provide a technical fix so that certain VA refinance loans would be eligible for pooling in a Ginnie Mae mortgage-backed security. The bill was reported out of committee by a unanimous 49-0 vote, and was approved quickly by the House ...
FHA Issues Waiver of Property Inspections in Disaster-Stricken California Counties. FHA has issued a waiver of its timing policy for completing property inspections prior to closing or endorsing a loan for FHA insurance. The waiver is in effect in presidentially declared major disaster areas in Lake and Shasta Counties, CA, that were ravaged by wildfires and high winds. FHA believes that the wildfires and high winds have stabilized so as not to cause any further damage to properties, even though FEMA has not declared “all clear” in the affected areas. The waiver allows damage inspections to be completed after Oct. 2, for properties located in the PDMDA. NC Commissioner of Banks Amends State Reverse Mortgage Rules. The North Carolina Commissioner of Banks recently amended its ...
The industry is still waiting for guidance on how mortgage-related rules were changed by the Dodd-Frank regulatory relief bill, even though most provisions took effect immediately when the bill was signed into law in May. A number of requirements were changed in regard to smaller financial institutions by the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act, including the qualified-mortgage standard. However, the industry is still awaiting guidance from the Consumer Financial ...
Changes made by the Dodd-Frank reform bill, along with other legislative proposals and government actions, would have mixed credit impact on ABS backed by student loans, said Moody’s Investors Service.
Ginnie Mae assured the mortgage industry that it would accept so-called VA orphan loans as long as they satisfy the terms of corrective legislation passed by the House Financial Services Committee recently. “As long as the mortgage loan complies with the law, we will accept it and put our guarantee on it,” said an agency spokesperson in response to an Inside FHA/VA Lending inquiry. Ginnie’s assurance provides certainty to a subset of VA loans that have been in limbo since June because they could not be delivered into Ginnie mortgage-backed securities. Lawmakers responded to industry calls for a legislative fix last week by voting overwhelmingly to approve H.R. 6737, the “Protect Affordable Mortgages for Veterans Act of 2018.” Introduced by Rep. Lee Zeldin, R-NY, the bill would eliminate the seasoning requirements in the recently enacted Dodd-Frank Act reform legislation, which conflicted with ...
It looks like the Department of Housing and Urban Development will not be able meet its September target date for rolling out its long-awaited FHA condominium reform rule. Such is the consensus among stakeholders whose hopes were raised when HUD Secretary Ben Carson told the House Financial Services Committee in June that he would be issuing the rule this month. “HUD and the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (within the Office of Management and Budget) want to release the rules with the updated Single Family Handbook and they are still working on that,” said a real estate industry executive. He added that despite what Carson said at the committee hearing, “September is not likely for a release.” As of press time, the final condo reform rule had not yet been delivered for OMB review, a process that in the past has taken months to complete. In contrast, it took about a ...
James Lockhart, the Federal Housing Finance Agency director who headed the regulator when the government takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac occurred in September 2008, told Inside The GSEs he never dreamed the conservatorships would last a decade. “We thought it might go a couple of years and Congress would act,” he said. Lockhart added philosophically: “Perhaps, the conservatorships worked too well.” Lockhart, who eventually became a vice chairman of WL Ross & Co., and played a key role in that firm’s mortgage-related investments, said he’s happy that the two are now steadily profitable. But he...
The bulk of the House Financial Services Committee hearing last week focused on the lack of reform and how the GSEs’ growing role in the housing market makes them more of a liability to taxpayers today than they were before the housing crisis. The hearing was held on September 6, the 10-year anniversary of the conservatorship that has lasted longer than anyone expected. Retiring chairman of the committee Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-TX, called the date the “not so happy anniversary” and said while reform is critical, it’s proven illusive.Hensarling introduced a bipartisan bill during the hearing, the Bipartisan Housing Finance Reform Act of 2018, but implied it likely won’t go anywhere in this Congress.
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