Recent circuit court rulings may bolster FHA lenders’ defense against the government’s heavy use of the False Claims Act in FHA lending cases, according to industry attorneys. In the years following the financial crisis, the Department of Justice and the relators bar have used the FCA aggressively to target banks and nonbank mortgage lenders for losses incurred by FHA due to poor underwriting and false certifications. The DOJ and the Department of Housing and Urban Development have recovered billions of dollars through settlements with various mortgage lenders and servicers, using increasingly creative theories of liability to hold them responsible for FHA losses. This week, the DOJ filed a lawsuit in federal court in Washington, DC, accusing Guild Mortgage of improper origination and underwriting of FHA-insured mortgage loans from January 2006 through December 2011. As in ...

Trade groups representing lenders, homebuilders and appraisers have asked Congress to hold a hearing this year on the future of appraisal regulation.In a joint letter, five industry groups urged the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs to reevaluate oversight of the appraisal industry and the current federal regulatory structure for real estate appraisal.The committee last held an appraisal oversight hearing in 2004. Federal appraisal regulations have been untouched since the enactment of the Federal Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act of 1989, the trade groups noted. In addition, the groups asked that both federal and state responsibilities be reassessed to see if they continue to serve consumers and market participants well, as well as promote competition in the marketplace. In addition to federal regulation, states regulate appraisers as well. The groups want to know from Congress whether federal oversight of appraisers is still necessary.

The Department of Veterans Affairs has issued new guidance and some servicing reminders in connection with mobile-home foreclosures, consent judgments, servicer transfers, liquidation appraisal fees and others.VA servicers must specifically refer to the mobile home in foreclosure declaration documents to ensure that both the home and the land are properly foreclosed, the VA said. Many states require two separate foreclosure procedures for every transaction – one to foreclose the interest on the land and the other to foreclose on the title of the mobile home. The VA said foreclosure on the title of the mobile home may have to be filed with state’s Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV). When a VA loan on a home on wheels is referred to foreclosure, the servicer must inform the foreclosing attorney that it is a mobile home and whether a DMV filing is required. The VA will reconvey the mobile home to the ...

The Department of Veterans Affairs has clarified the type of documents lenders would need to provide clear and marketable title for conveyed properties to the VA in all states and U.S. territories. Under VA rules, each conveyance or transfer of real property to the VA shall be acceptable if “the holder covenants or warrants against the acts of the holder and those claiming under the holder (e.g. by special warranty deed).” In addition, the conveyance would be acceptable if it entitles the VA Secretary to such title as is or if it is acceptable to prudent lenders, informed buyers, title companies and attorneys, generally in the community in which the property is located. The VA said its determination of clear and marketable title depends on state statutory requirements. As a general requirement, documents for proper conveyance of clear and marketable title to the VA include the ...

Production of loans with FHA, VA and rural housing guaranties held up a little better than the other sectors, with estimated originations slipping 1.0 percent from the fourth quarter.

Will Caliber buy other companies as well?

Mortgage call-center platforms are in high demand these days, according to industry advisors, but there’s one key caveat for potential buyers: rising interest rates. “Who’s looking at buying call centers?” asked Paul Hindman, business development chief for Grid Financial Services. “Just about everyone.” It would appear...

Despite low inventory and financing conditions that can favor other types of homebuyers, first-timers are increasing their market share, according to the latest Campbell/Inside Mortgage FinanceHousingPulse Tracking Survey. First-time homebuyers accounted for 38.9 percent of home purchases in April, based on a three-month moving average. That was up from a 38.1 percent share the previous month and a 37.2 percent share in April 2015. “Demand from first-time homebuyers is...

A paper recently published by the Treasury Department’s Office of Financial Research detailed links between changes in underwriting standards at banks and the banks’ loan application denial rates and mortgage performance. While the findings are intuitive, the paper from the OFR was the first to match individual lenders’ confidential responses to the Federal Reserve’s Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey with data from the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act. “We find...

How disruptive were MSR ‘marks’? The nine nonbank lenders tracked by Inside Mortgage Trends reported a combined $510.0 million loss in the first quarter…