Investors in FHA’s distressed note sales program would be required to do more for homeowners to help them avoid foreclosure and keep their homes, thanks to improvements to FHA’s Distressed Asset Stabilization Program (DASP) announced this week by the agency. The changes appear aimed at consumer groups’ criticism of the Department of Housing and Urban Development for allowing profit-oriented investors to purchase the troubled HUD assets at a discount and flip the homes for a profit without ever helping the distressed homeowner. Although the transactions make good economic sense for investors and the government, struggling homeowners end up losing their homes without having tried any loan modification option that could have helped them avoid foreclosure. HUD launched the DASP in 2010 under pressure from Congress to help stabilize the FHA’s Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund, which ...

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. this week revised its securitization safe-harbor rule to clarify loss mitigation standards for mortgage servicers to synchronize it with the similar requirements issued by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The FDIC safe-harbor rule sets standards under which the agency will not attempt to capture assets of a failed bank that are transferred to qualifying securitizations. Under the previous rule, servicers of residential mortgages backing MBS that enjoy safe-harbor status were required to take loss mitigation action within 90 days after the loan becomes delinquent. In January 2013, the CFPB adopted...

A federal appeals court in New York this week will hear arguments from African-American subprime borrowers in Detroit in connection with a proposed class action challenging Morgan Stanley’s mortgage securitization practices during the subprime mortgage boom. The American Civil Liberties Union and its partners are seeking class-action status for the borrowers’ Fair Housing Act claims, which were initially rejected by a lower court. The court previously ruled that each borrower would have to sue on his or her own. The issue on appeal at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit is...

In trading Thursday, Ocwen’s share price was up almost 8.0 percent on the day to $1.69 a share.

Jumbo mortgage originations declined by 2.0 percent during the first quarter of 2016, mirroring the modest downturn in overall mortgage lending from the previous quarter. Jumbo originations – including loans that were within the high-cost loan limits for Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, FHA and VA – totaled $100.61 billion in the first quarter, according to a new analysis and ranking by Inside Mortgage Finance. The sector accounted for 26.5 percent of total originations during the first three months of the year, down slightly from a 26.7 percent share in the fourth quarter. The jumbo share of total originations has generally been...[Includes three data tables]

There is a fighting chance that agency high-cost limits could go up in 2017.

Chase serviced $169.70 billion of jumbos at March 31, up 27.3 percent from the year before….

Originations of interest-only mortgages increased sharply in the first quarter of 2016, according to a new analysis by Inside Nonconforming Markets. A group of 12 lenders originated $8.72 billion in IOs in the first quarter, up 26.9 percent from the previous quarter and a 29.8 percent increase from same period in 2015. IO originations in the first three months of 2016 even topped the $8.61 billion in IO originations by the lenders in the second quarter of 2015. [Includes one data chart] ...

The outstanding supply of single-family MBS in the market fell slightly in the first quarter, but you have to go two paces to the right of the decimal point to see it. A new Inside MBS & ABS analysis indicates that outstanding MBS totaled $6.407 trillion as of the end of March. That was down 0.01 percent from the previous quarter, stalling a steady expansion of the market that took place in 2015. And with a modest 0.2 percent increase in total single-family mortgage debt outstanding, the modest contraction in MBS nudged...[Includes two data tables]

Lone Star Funds is preparing to issue a $161.71 million nonprime mortgage-backed security that will close next week. COLT 2016-1 Mortgage Loan Trust received an A rating from DBRS and Fitch Ratings. The deal marks the first nonprime MBS backed by new originations to receive a rating since the financial crisis. It will also be the largest post-crisis nonprime MBS issued to date, topping a $150.35 million MBS from Angel Oak Capital Advisors in December. Officials at Fitch Ratings said ...