The Department of Housing and Urban Development’s lender disciplinary arm, the Mortgagee Review Board, has suspended a Pennsylvania FHA lender from originating or underwriting any new agency-insured loans. In addition, HUD’s enforcement center suspended owner John Seckel from doing business with the federal government. According to HUD, Seckle Capital of Newton, PA, and its owner submitted statements and certifications purporting to show the firm was properly audited by independent certified public accountants, when, in fact, it was not. The MRB said Seckel and his firm engaged in a “years-long pattern” of deceit and falsehoods. The action is the result of HUD’s ongoing effort to hold the mortgage industry accountable for the loans it originates, underwrites or services. According to HUD’s Neighborhood Watch website, Seckel Capital has a compare ratio of 164 percent. Of the 557 loans the ...

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Housing Service has clarified procedures for reevaluating approved lenders’ and servicers’ eligibility under the RHS Single Family Housing Guaranteed Loan Program. The guidance also provides procedures for updating lender information. The RHS intends to review and document lender eligibility in accordance with regulation and program requirements to protect government assets and minimize taxpayer losses. Office of Management and Budget regulations require federal agencies to reevaluate and record lender and servicer eligibility every two years. “For the [USDA single family loan guarantee program], it requires making sure that lenders and servicers participating in federal credit programs meet all applicable financial and program requirements,” wrote Richard Davis, acting RHS administrator. To meet the requirements, lenders must ...

The Department of Veterans Affairs is ratcheting up enforcement of its so-called Tidewater process to prevent veterans from paying more than the appraised value of the property when using a VA loan. In recent guidance, the VA reaffirmed its 2003 Tidewater Appraisal Initiative to help reduce the number of cases where appraisers have been asked to reconsider their initial appraisal, which had come in below the sales price. The guidance emphasizes procedures for improving communication of new sales data to VA fee and staff appraisers for a reevaluation of the low initial appraisal. “These guidelines should help limit the number of cases that reach the reconsideration-of-value phase and also provide a more timely response to those cases that are submitted for reconsideration,” the VA explained. The Tidewater procedure provides a designated “point of contact” (POC) the opportunity to ...

The House Appropriations Committee has recommended $50 million to fund the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s FY 2018 housing counseling assistance to homebuyers, homeowners and low and moderate-income renters. The allocation is $3 million more than the Trump administration had requested and $5 million below the amount appropriated for housing counseling in fiscal year 2017. In its budget report, the committee noted the continued improvement in the economy, which has resulted in fewer foreclosures. Foreclosure filings from 2016 were reported on 933,000 properties, representing a 10-year low and a 14 percent reduction from 2015, the report pointed out. “The foreclosure rate has stayed within a historically normal range for three years, even with the pipeline of legacy foreclosures resulting from the housing bubble,” it said. In addition, the bill retains language that ...

Affordability and job availability are driving millennials to seek homes in more affordable markets, particularly in the upper Midwest, according to Ellie Mae data for the month of May. Ellie Mae’s Millennial Tracker, which monitors millennial mortgage applications during specific times, found that the higher percentages of loans made to millennial borrowers are in Hutchinson and Austin, MN, and Wahpeton and Williston, ND. Anniston-Oxford-Jacksonville, AL, rounded out the top-five markets. Ellie Mae defines millennials as applicants born between 1980 and 1999. Data showed that 48 percent of millennial borrowers who closed loans in May were single. In Hutchinson, for example, the majority of borrowers were single men. “This suggests millennials may be embracing homeownership in these areas for reasons other than what we have historically seen, which was family formation,” explained ...

The nation’s megabanks have started reporting second-quarter results, revealing a mixed bag when it comes to residential originations, according to a new analysis from Inside Mortgage Finance. The nation’s largest home lender, Wells Fargo, so far, has turned in the strongest performance of the group, funding $56.0 billion of product, a handsome 27.3 percent improvement from the first quarter of the year. Bank of America held its own with a 15.8 percent sequential improvement and U.S. Bank hiked its production game by a more modest 10.2 percent. And then there are...[Includes one data table]

With refinance activity tapering off, the retail production channel lost some of its edge during the second quarter of 2017, according to a new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of agency mortgage-backed securities. Retail production accounted for 50.6 percent of the $290.63 billion of single-family mortgages securitized by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae in the second quarter. Including modified loans and those with no channel identification ... [Includes one data chart]

Direct-mail advertising campaigns touting refinances help prompt borrowers to refi, according to a study by economists at the Federal Reserve. They added that policymakers should consider making it easier for lenders to target borrowers for refis. Seran Grundl and You Suk Kim, economists at the Fed, authored a recent working paper that examined how borrowers react to receiving ads in the mail for refinances. They said the effect of advertising on consumer mistakes and ...

Commercial banks and thrifts reported a decline in the volume of home mortgages they repurchased in the first quarter of 2017, according to an Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of call-report data. The industry repurchased, or provided other indemnification, related to $801.3 million of home mortgages during the first three months of the year. That was down 1.5 percent from the previous period. First-quarter repurchases were actually up 4.9 percent from ... [Includes one data chart]

New research from Black Knight Financial Services finds that the underwater homeowner population has fallen to 1.8 million borrowers, dipping below 2.0 million for the first time since 2006. Researchers also expect “tappable equity” to hit a record high this summer, according to their new report on data from the first four months of 2017. “The steady upward trajectory of home prices continues to improve the equity positions of many homeowners,” said Ben Graboske, executive vice president ...