The Department of Housing and Urban Development is requiring servicers of FHA-insured mortgages to delay foreclosure for a year and to evaluate all borrowers for the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) and other similar loss-mitigation programs. The move is one of the improvements to the FHA Distressed Asset Stabilization Program, a direct-sale pilot program that allows pools of foreclosure-bound mortgages to be sold to qualified bidders. Bidders are encouraged to work with borrowers to help cure the loan – a less costly alternative to foreclosure or an REO (real estate-owned) sale. An FHA servicer can place a troubled loan into a DASP pool if the borrower is at least six months delinquent on their mortgage and the servicer has exhausted all FHA loss-mitigation options. Previously, servicers could foreclose six months after they received the loan. They were also encouraged, though not required, to ...
The FHA has automated the delivery of notices to targeted lenders that receive an “unacceptable” rating following a post-endorsement review of a sample of their FHA-insured mortgage loans. The agency’s notification process shifted from manual to electronic effective on April 27, with the deployment of a new automated system for delivering notices of unacceptable findings, or eFindings letter. The change speeds up the process of determining whether a direct-endorsement lender should be subject to an indemnification request from FHA because of faulty underwriting. The enhanced delivery process will make it easier for lenders to do business with the FHA, the agency said. The post-endorsement audit is crucial to the success of the FHA’s direct-endorsement program. The FHA performs a post-endorsement technical review (PETR) on selected cases to evaluate the risk loans pose to ...
Freddie Mac has announced a new “modification solution” screen in Workout Prospector (WP) to facilitate the settlement of modifications of mortgages guaranteed by the Department of Agriculture’s Rural Housing Service. Before entering the data through the modification solution screen, servicers must first have RHS’ written approval to modify the loan, according to latest servicing guidance from the government-sponsored enterprise. When submitting data to Freddie via Workout Prospector, the servicer must complete the data entry in accordance with the instructions in the WP user’s guide and the terms of the RHS modification-approval letter, the GSE said. After completing its review of the data, Freddie will change the WP system status to either “approved” or “declined” with respect to the modification of an RHS mortgage. However, the change does not constitute an approval or denial of the ...
In the first quarter, the top sequential gainers were all nonbanks: loanDepot (up 50.6 percent), Caliber Home Loans (46.2 percent) and Stearns Lending (22.6 percent.)
The share of non-homeowners that expect to purchase a home in the foreseeable future is down significantly compared with two years ago, according to a new poll by Gallup. However, a survey commissioned by JPMorgan Chase suggests that potential homebuyers are ready to “get off the sidelines” before interest rates increase. In April 2013, Gallup found that 31 percent of non-homeowners didn’t expect to purchase a home in the foreseeable future. In a survey conducted this month, the share of non-homeowners that don’t expect to buy a house in the foreseeable future increased to 41 percent. Art Swift, managing editor at Gallup, noted...
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