Plenty of potential homebuyers have prequalified with HomeStreet Bank for mortgages this year but the bank has significantly cut its mortgage staff because originations have been below expectations. The bank focuses on markets on the West Coast and officials said purchase-mortgage originations have been constrained by a low supply of homes for sale. “The strong West Coast economies and local markets in which we operate are continuing to produce above-average job and population growth ...

Thanks to a comeback in private-money lending and a boom in the “fix-and-flip” sector, FCI Lender Services has seen its servicing portfolio double the past two years to roughly $7 billion. By 2019, it expects to be servicing upwards of $10 billion. At least that’s the forecast from Gordon Albrecht, senior director in charge of marketing and strategies for the Anaheim, CA-based nonbank. “Business is accelerating across the board,” said Albrecht. The only sector that’s not expected to show ...

Since early July, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have seen the share price of their common stock rise roughly 35 percent on the over-the-counter market, turning these two government wards into some of the best short-term investments among all equities. Then again, there appears to be no real reason for the run-up in trading price, though observers speculate that a Republican National Committee resolution issued earlier in the year regarding the two might have something to do with it ...

A proposal last week from federal regulators to reduce capital requirements on mortgage servicing rights for all but the largest banks was met with mostly praise from banks. “The proposal to review and refine capital rules for community banks is a step in the right direction that acknowledges what our members already know,” said Rob Nichols, president and CEO of the American Bankers Association. “Some of the current capital requirements are keeping banks from fully serving their ...

Mortgage bankers will now have until June 25, 2018, to adopt new margin requirements under Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Rule 4210, instead of the previous date of Dec. 15, 2017, after the self-regulatory organization opted to give the industry six more months of lead time. Last week, FINRA announced it was filing the proposed extension with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which has to sign off on it. But given the non-controversial, industry-supported nature of the proposal, the SEC’s blessing is considered a formality. According to a summary by the Mortgage Bankers Association, the amendments institute...

The biggest challenge for the vibrant single-family rental market may be the shortage of available homes to purchase, according to panelists speaking at an Urban Institute event highlighting institutional investment in SFRs this week. And one analyst pointed to mid-sized investors as being best positioned to profit from the market. Since the financial crisis, SFRs have emerged as a viable housing option and real estate investment firms are seizing the opportunity. Both mom-and-pop operators and institutional investors have been buying homes of all sizes and offering them as rental properties. Prior to the crisis, there were...

Ginnie Mae’s inadequate response to the rapid increase of nonbank issuers may make it difficult for the agency to identify issuer problems in time to prevent default, warned the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s inspector general in a recent audit report. Specifically, the IG report said the agency failed to implement policies and procedures for managing issuers in a timely manner and tried to supervise them without a written default strategy. Furthermore, the report claimed Ginnie did not promptly assess and address the risks posed by nonbanks. Ginnie Mae questioned the findings, contending it “has done a more than credible job adapting to the new environment” despite the pressure on its resources. Ginnie’s issuer base had changed dramatically over the last couple of years as many banks either left or reduced their exposure in the FHA market for fear of being slapped with a ...

The Department of Housing and Urban Development has asked its inspector general for some leeway in making much needed changes to ensure servicers are employing loss mitigation. Responding to an audit, HUD asked the IG to modify some of the recommendations to enable the agency to make policy changes where needed and in a suitable format. HUD also requested that recommendations regarding indemnification and servicing be tweaked so that remedies will be required only when a deficiency is found. The IG audit was based on the result of an analysis, which showed that servicers may not be always evaluating delinquent FHA borrowers for loss mitigation as required and that HUD’s oversight in this area is weak. According to the findings, HUD did not have adequate controls to ensure that servicers of FHA-insured single-family loans properly engaged in ...

Wells Fargo recaptured its crown as the leading VA jumbo securitizer, pushing Penny Mac back to second place even as the market dropped further in the second quarter. The volume of VA jumbo loans securitized during the second quarter declined by 5.2 percent from the prior quarter and by 11.8 percent during the first half of 2017 compared to the same period last year. VA jumbo mortgage originations were off by 4.3 percent from the first quarter, according to an analysis by Inside FHA/VA Lending affiliate Inside Mortgage Finance. Agency-jumbo production sagged in the second quarter but the results were not uniform. Fannie Mae production was up 6.5 percent from the prior quarter, while FHA jumbo securitization gained 7.2 percent during the period. At the same time, VA jumbo securitization was down 5.2 percent to $7.4 billion from $7.8 billion, while Freddie Mac saw a hefty 27.8 percent drop in ... [Charts]

A previously obscure FHA program for properties in designated disaster areas is getting more interest from lenders in the wake of hurricanes Harvey and Irma. According to FHA data, there has been a noticeable increase in loans originated under the FHA 203(h) mortgage insurance program, which is designed specifically for hard-hit homeowners in presidentially declared major disaster areas (PDMDA). Origination under the 203(h) program rose from $17.8 million in 2015 to $64.1 million in 2017, data showed. Use of the 203(h) product spiked in the fourth quarter of 2016, when 180 loans totaling $34.0 million were originated, up from 47 in the previous quarter and 26 loans from the same period in 2015. The U.S. experienced more floods in 2016, 19 in all, than any year on record, according to an analysis by Munich Re, a global reinsurance firm. In post-hurricane guidance, FHA urged lenders to ...