Guild Mortgage has partnered with FirstREX, a long-term investor in residential properties, in developing a downpayment program with a unique equity financing feature to help people buy larger homes while keeping their monthly mortgage payments low. Launched on Aug. 1, the FirstREX Homebuyer program allows FirstREX to contribute half of the 20 percent required for a Guild home-purchase loan. The 10 percent is an equity investment, not a loan, for which no ...

The secondary market in transfers of agency mortgage servicing rights gained some momentum during the third quarter of 2016, according to a new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis and ranking. A total of $94.96 billion of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae MSR connected to newly issued mortgage-backed securities changed hands during the third quarter. That was up 9.4 percent from the second quarter and represented the heaviest volume since ... [Includes two data charts]

Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Mel Watt said access to credit and supporting underserved markets will be among the goals outlined for the GSEs next year. Although the FHFA will not release a 2017 GSE scorecard until yearend, Watt, speaking at this week’s annual Mortgage Bankers Association convention in Boston, offered a preview of what Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will focus on in the coming year. Watt said he expects the GSEs to ramp up research efforts to increase responsible access to credit and affordable housing. He said the average credit scores for GSE purchase loans remain historically high. “Based on the work they have already done and this additional research, we’ll be asking them to...

Publicly traded banks reported strong gains in mortgage-banking income during the third quarter, according to a new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of earnings releases. A diverse group of 26 banks that includes all the top lender-servicers and a number of regional players reported a combined $3.853 billion in mortgage-banking profits for the third quarter of 2016. That was up 23.5 percent from the previous period, and it was the strongest quarterly showing ... [Includes one data chart]

So far, the third quarter has seen several publicly traded commercial banks mark up the asset value of their residential mortgage servicing rights, but in general, the increases have been mild, to say the least. The only bank that reported a sizeable increase was Bank of America, which valued its MSR portfolio at 60 basis points at Sept. 30, an increase of 9 bps from mid-year. Of the reporting banks, BofA’s improvement has been the largest by far. BofA’s megabank competitor ...

Borrower retention – convincing a borrower to take a mortgage with their existing lender when the time comes for a new mortgage – can increase the value of servicing a new mortgage by 1.5 times to 3.0 times, according to calculations by Strategic Mortgage Finance Group. Matt Lind, a senior partner at Stratmor, came to that conclusion when considering the value of customer retention beyond trying to glean insight from the market price of servicing used in correspondent ...

Nonbanks crossed a threshold in the third quarter of 2016, posting a hefty 6.3 percent increase in their combined Ginnie Mae servicing portfolio, according to a new Inside FHA/VA Lending analysis. Nonbanks serviced $826.6 billion of Ginnie single-family mortgage-backed securities as of the end of September. That represented 51.3 percent of the total Ginnie market. The nonbank servicing total includes a small amount of Ginnie servicing held by state housing finance agencies, roughly 1.0 percent of the entire market. But it doesn’t include the significant amount of Ginnie servicing that nonbanks do as subservicers for both depository and nonbank clients. Interestingly, the biggest gain for nonbanks in percentage terms came in servicing VA loans, which rose 8.1 percent from the second quarter to $252.1 billion, or 51.0 percent of the market. The VA sector is one business from ... [4 charts ]

The Department of Housing and Urban Development called on its inspector general to reassess estimated financial losses to the FHA insurance fund, which an IG audit attributed to lengthy delays of servicer foreclosures and property conveyances. A recent audit report by the HUD inspector general alleges that HUD paid approximately $2.23 billion in claims for an estimated 239,000 properties that missed foreclosure and conveyance deadlines. According to the IG report, HUD paid an estimated $141.9 million for servicers’ claims for “unreasonable and unnecessary” debenture interest on the distressed loans, as well as $2.09 billion in servicer claims for holding the properties past their foreclosure and conveyance deadlines. While it was necessary for servicers to pay for property-preservation costs, HUD should not have paid for holding costs, the ...

The Department of Housing and Urban Development inspector general, over the last several weeks, has reported a series of final civil actions that resulted in an enforcement action or monetary settlement between an FHA lender and the federal government. On Oct. 6, the IG announced the results of an audit of TXL Mortgage Corp., a direct endorsement lender, in Houston. The audit found TXL in violation of HUD requirements and that it had no acceptable quality-control plan in place. Specifically, 16 of the 20 sample loans the IG reviewed did not comply with HUD standards. Of the 16 loans, eight had significant underwriting defects and failed to qualify for FHA mortgage insurance. Two loans qualified but were over-insured, according to the report. As a result, TXL exposed HUD to more than $713,000 in unnecessary insurance risk and caused the department to incur more than ...

One of the key documents VA lenders require veteran borrowers to submit is the certificate of eligibility (COE). A VA loan application will not move forward without a COE, a requirement for any active-duty servicemember or veteran seeking to take advantage of the VA’s home-loan guaranty program. The COE verifies to the lender a loan applicant’s eligibility for a VA loan. The evidence a lender might require depends on the nature of the applicant’s eligibility. Veterans and current or former National Guardsmen or reservists who have been called to active duty must submit DD Form 214. The form would show the character of service and the reason for separation from the service. Active-duty servicemembers must submit a current statement of service signed by a superior, the unit commander or the adjutant, higher headquarters or the personnel office. The statement must contain the ...