Major industry trade groups are asking FHA and VA to suspend proposed guidelines for energy-improvement loans and give stakeholders an opportunity to comment. In a joint letter, 11 trade groups warned that the proposed agency guidelines regarding Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) loans raises serious concerns that must be resolved before implementation of any PACE guidance. Prior to the issuance of the new guidelines, both FHA and VA prohibited the financing or refinancing if there was a lien other than the FHA-insured or VA-guaranteed mortgages. PACE programs are available in 19 states but most are in California. They provide financing for home improvements and clean-energy upgrades that would result in more efficient use of water and electricity, and ultimately savings for homeowners. The PACE obligation is repaid through a property-tax assessment, which takes a ...

The FHA has announced new streamlined procedures to help delinquent homeowners avoid foreclosure and stay in their homes. The agency is revising loss-mitigation procedures servicers use when evaluating and choosing the best home-retention options for delinquent borrowers by reducing waiting time for results. The new streamlined procedures are designed to enhance servicers’ ability to evaluate foreclosure-avoidance alternatives, especially for the FHA-Home Affordable Modification Program (FHA-HAMP). Specifically, FHA will require servicers to convert successful three-month trial modifications into permanent modifications within 60 days instead of the average four to six months. Borrowers who have three missed mortgage payments would be able to opt for a partial claim to bring their arrearages current versus the previous four-month minimum. In addition, the FHA will eliminate the ...

Rushmore Loan Management Services, Irvine, CA – a subservicing specialist – plans to enter the origination market early next month, a rarity for firms whose forte is processing loans for others. Company CEO Terry Smith told Inside Mortgage Finance that the nonbank’s direct-to-consumer arm is scheduled to begin funding loans on Sept. 1. “Our focus will be on originating loans – and servicing those loans,” Smith said. He also noted...

Commercial banks and savings institutions reported a combined $3.581 billion in mortgage-banking income during the second quarter of 2016, according to a new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of call reports. That was up 8.3 percent from the $3.307 billion the industry reported for the first quarter of 2016. For the first six months of the year, banks reported $6.888 billion in mortgage-banking profits, down 31.7 percent from the same period in ... [Includes one data chart]

Publicly traded nonbank mortgage companies had widely varying results on their mortgage-banking operations during the second quarter as heavy losses reported by two firms pulled the group’s earnings underwater. Nine nonbanks reported a combined net loss of $339.5 million on mortgage-banking activity for the second quarter. That was actually an improvement over the $510.0 million the group lost in the first three months of the year. Nationstar ... [Includes one data chart]

With residential origination costs constantly rising, should rank-and-file loan officers worry that their jobs will eventually be automated away thanks to advances in technology? The thinking goes like this: Lenders are spending hundreds of million dollars a year in software upgrades to automate as many LO functions as they can. The ultimate goal is to reduce the number of loan officers and whittle down costs. Depending on where they work, mortgage loan officers can earn ...

While holders of mortgage servicing rights have taken large writedowns in recent quarters due to declines in interest rates, New Residential Investment has managed to report relatively large profits. New Residential had $68.65 million in net income attributable to common stockholders in the second quarter of 2016, down from $111.74 million the previous quarter and $75.12 million in the second quarter of 2015. New Residential held $1.36 billion in excess MSRs ...

Since the beginning of summer, at least eight mortgage-related merger and acquisition deals have come to light and more are on the way, according to an analysis by Inside Mortgage Finance. To date, most of the activity has involved nonbank purchasers, with at least two of the acquirers – Home Point Financial and Caliber Home Loans – having private equity behind them. And of the eight, only one involves the sale of stock through a “franchise” transaction ...

Among the top 10 lenders in the second quarter of 2016, PennyMac Financial posted the largest increase to originations on a quarterly basis and compared with the second quarter of 2015, according to Inside Mortgage Finance. The lender plans to continue to grow, including launching a wholesale-broker operation in mid-2017 and putting an emphasis on consumer-direct production. PennyMac reported originations of $16.11 billion in the second quarter, up 47.9 percent ...

A handful of investors, including Caliber Home Loans, are kicking the tires at PHH Corp., taking a close look at the company’s mortgage assets and platforms, investment banking sources told Inside Mortgage Finance this week. At this point in time, a sale of the company through a stock transaction is highly unlikely, but the disposal of some of its key assets – in particular, its $231.74 billion servicing portfolio – could finally materialize before yearend. It’s...