The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Housing Program has fully automated the submission of loan-origination documents and the electronic issuance of conditional commitments. This means that RHS’s Guaranteed Underwriting System (GUS), which is used for underwriting single-family rural home loans, has gone paperless, beginning March 28, 2015. Over the past year, USDA Rural Development has implemented changes to streamline and modernize the guaranteed loan program. In December last year, the RHS modified its lender loan-closing system to allow electronic issuance of loan note guarantees. Under the streamlined document-submission process for GUS requests, lenders will upload all required origination documents into GUS following a final submission. This enables lenders to avoid encrypting and emailing docs to USDA. After receiving the docs, GUS will alert the ...

Fannie Mae Updates Reverse Mortgage Loan Servicing Manual. Fannie Mae has updated its reverse mortgage servicing manual with changes and clarifications to policies pertaining to Home Equity Conversion Mortgages. For HECMs, Fannie now requires servicers to place a real estate-owned hazard insurance policy upon completion of a foreclosure sale. It also outlined servicers’ responsibilities regarding the documentation and cancellation of REO hazard insurance claims; reimbursement of REO hazard insurance premiums; and remittance of insurance loss proceeds. The revised policy changes must be implemented no later than April 1, 2015. House Democrats Reintroduce Housing Finance Reform Bill. Democrats on the House Financial Services Committee have introduced legislation that would provide private and government risk-share coverage to all mortgages, create a ...

Zacks Investment Research downgraded MGIC Investment Corp. by two notches...

If preapproval letters from certain lenders are routinely unreliable, real estate agents tend to suggest that homebuyers apply for a mortgage with a different lender, according to new research by Campbell Surveys, based on a national survey sponsored by Inside Mortgage Finance Publications. “Agents are sometimes skeptical of mortgage providers selected without their consultation,” said Tom Popik, research director of Campbell Surveys. Before working with a potential homebuyer, real estate agents largely prefer...

Residential originations for the group fell 45.7 percent from 2013, indicating that profit margins shrank slightly more than production volume.

According to a March forecast, Fannie Mae estimates that $1.239 trillion of residential loans will be funded this year.

To understand the plight of the publicly traded REO vendor, you first have to understand where it came from...

In some cities, future price gains may be hard to come by, especially if home flippers and investors bolt.

Meanwhile, according to interviews conducted by IMFnews with certain warehouse consultants, profits have been quite good during the first quarter...

Mortgage companies repurchased or provided indemnification to Fannie and Freddie on some $4.046 billion of mortgages during 2014.