The U.S. Department of Agriculture-Rural Housing Service has proposed to revise regulations for the single-family housing guaranteed loan program pertaining to qualified-mortgage (QM) requirements, refinancing, principal reduction and lender indemnification. The deadline for comments is May 4, 2015.The RHS is proposing to amend its regulations to indicate that a loan with an RHS guarantee is a qualified mortgage if it meets certain requirements set by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The CFPB published a QM rule, which became effective on Jan. 10, 2014. Among other things, the rule requires creditors to make a reasonable, good faith determination of a borrower’s ability to repay the mortgage loan. In addition, the rule establishes a safe harbor from liability for transactions that meet the QM requirements or, in certain cases, a rebuttable presumption of ...

Consumer advocates and attorneys are urging the Department of Housing and Urban Development to delay the implementation of a new policy that purports to provide relief to surviving spouses of reverse-mortgage borrowers and to find solutions that are more effective. The group said the policy HUD announced in Mortgagee Letter 2015-03 on Jan. 29 is so restrictive that virtually all surviving non-borrowing spouses will get no relief. A letter to the agency, drafted by the National Consumer Law Center and signed by the Consumers Union, California Reinvestment Coalition, National Housing Law Project, Housing and Economic Rights Advocates and Institute on Aging denounced the new policy. They said most surviving spouses of deceased borrowers of Home Equity Conversion Mortgage loans will not be able to meet the policy’s stringent guidelines and will ...

The volume of mortgage-servicing right transfers is expected to continue growing in 2015, perhaps hitting as high as $500 billion, according to experts attending the MSR conference sponsored by Information Management Network this week in New York. Although the focus in recent years has been on the advance of nonbank servicers, observers agree that banks will remain a major force in the industry. The wild card in the MSR market is ... [Includes one data chart]

The supply of home mortgage debt outstanding grew for the second consecutive quarter during the final three months of 2014, eking out a slim 0.1 percent gain from the end of September. The Federal Reserve late last week reported that $9.862 trillion of 1-4 family mortgage debt was outstanding at the end of last year. It may not sound like much, but it marked the first time since ... [Includes one data chart]

In the wake of a recent Supreme Court of the United States decision allowing loan officers to receive overtime pay, mortgage company owners are already laying down the law: no OT for LOs unless management approves the extra time first. The freshly decided case is causing lenders to distinguish between “inside” and “outside” salesforces. According to early interpretations of the decision, loan officers who work in a branch more than half their time are ...

Real estate agents have a positive outlook for the spring homebuying season, especially first-time homebuyers, according to the Campbell/Inside Mortgage Finance HousingPulse Tracking Survey. Tom Popik, research director of Campbell Surveys, said homebuyer traffic was higher than expected during the winter and demand from first-time buyers is expected to be strong in the coming months. “Rising interest rates may stimulate the market as homebuyers ...

Mortgage lenders repurchased or paid losses on $710.1 million of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans during the fourth quarter of 2014, a 30.8 percent increase from the previous period, according to a new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of earnings reports. While increased buybacks are never a good thing for lenders, the fourth-quarter total was the second-lowest repurchase amount disclosed by the two government-sponsored enterprises ... [Includes two data charts]

For the first time in nearly three years, commercial banks and thrifts increased their mortgage servicing rights accounts during the fourth quarter of 2014, according to a new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of call reports. At the end of last year, banks serviced residential mortgages with an unpaid principal balance of $4.416 trillion for other investors, an increase of $3.6 billion from the third quarter. That represents a tiny 0.08 percent increase ... [Includes one data chart]

After gaining market share in the fourth quarter of 2014, the wholesale-broker channel is poised for further growth, according to Mat Ishbia, president and CEO of United Wholesale Mortgage. “Wholesale brokers are making a comeback,” Ishbia said this week during a webinar sponsored by his firm, which was the second-ranked lender in the broker channel in 2014, according to Inside Mortgage Finance. “We see it growing again in the first quarter, second quarter and beyond ...

Although residential lenders saw their pipelines swell early in the year thanks to rapidly declining interest rates, few firms are feeling overwhelmingly bullish about the origination side of the business and remain skittish regarding hiring plans for the months ahead. But there are exceptions. Certain fast-growing national lenders such as Freedom Mortgage and loanDepot LLC remain hungry for loan officers, but want mortgage professionals with close ties to real estate agents ...