Analyst Henry Coffey: “It is worth noting, given expected home price appreciation, that a flat mortgage market should translate into a 4 percent or greater decline in actual mortgage unit count.”
Deephaven Mortgage’s recent adoption of an automated system to pre-qualify expanded-credit borrowers has prompted some speculation about whether fully automated underwriting systems could be used for originations of non-qualified mortgages. A number of expanded-credit lenders at the ABS East conference suggested that some automated underwriting is possible, but some aspects of the non-QM underwriting process will likely need human intervention. The conference was ...
Quicken Loans recently made a number of adjustments to its underwriting standards for jumbo mortgages, including allowing for lower downpayment requirements and increasing amounts available for cash-out refinances. For certain jumbos, Quicken will now allow downpayments as low as 10.0 percent with no mortgage insurance required. To qualify, the loan amount must be less than $1.0 million and a borrower must generally have a credit score of at least 760 and a debt-to-income ratio ...
Ocwen Financial completed its acquisition of PHH Corp. this week. Glen Messina was appointed as president and CEO of Ocwen as the $360 million cash transaction closed. He said the merger provides “a foundation to enable Ocwen to resume new business and growth activities to offset portfolio runoff.” New Penn Financial launched a non-qualified mortgage product last week that allows borrowers to qualify for a loan based on their assets. To qualify ... [Includes three briefs]
Ginnie Mae issuance of single-family mortgage-backed securities rode a homebuying wave during the third quarter of 2018, according to a new Inside FHA/VA Lending ranking and analysis. Ginnie issuers produced $105.63 billion of new MBS backed by forward mortgages during the July-September cycle, a 7.1 percent increase from the second quarter. That brought year-to-date production to $296.88 billion – down 11.3 percent from the first nine months of 2017. Purchase mortgages provided the boost for the Ginnie market. Some $75.69 billion of FHA and VA purchase mortgages were pooled in Ginnie MBS in the third quarter, a sturdy 13.1 percent increase from the previous period. Purchase loans accounted for 75.1 percent of FHA and VA loans securitized in the third quarter, compared to 64.7 percent for all of last year. Although production of these loans has gone up since the first quarter, year-to-date volume ... [Charts]
The reverse mortgage industry is supporting an FHA move to require a second appraisal for certain Home Equity Conversion Mortgage loans. FHA did not seek public comment on the interim policy change, which subjects all HECM loans, effective Oct. 1, to a collateral risk assessment to ensure the appraisal of the property is not inflated. The new policy has wide support in the reverse mortgage industry. A study conducted by the Department of Housing and Urban Development last year found that 37 percent of appraisals on approximately 134,000 HECMs tested positive for over-valuation. The inflated HECM appraisals were at least 3 percent higher than estimates by FHA’s proprietary automated valuation model, according to FHA Commissioner Brian Montgomery. The same study also found that higher-than-expected losses in the HECM program could be attributed in part to ...
Mortgage servicing delays have caused the Department of Housing and Urban Development to pay a whopping $413 million for unnecessary interest and other expenses. The payment put a major dent on the FHA Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund and its ability to pay other claims or reduce FHA mortgage-insurance premiums, according to a report from the HUD inspector general. The amount covered interest payments and other costs on 27,634 preforeclosure claims over a five-year period. The costly setback could have been avoided had lenders completed servicing chores on defaulted FHA loans within their prescribed periods, the IG said. Although serviers were to blame, HUD reimbursed them through FHA insurance claims. The IG analyzed 100,077 preforeclosure claims paid from Aug. 1, 2012, through July 31, 2017. Auditors identified 30,061 claims that had ...
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