An FHA lender need not cancel a scheduled foreclosure sale to reassess a borrower if the property is non-owner occupied, vacant or an investment property, according to newly issued agency guidance. Under such circumstances, the lender does not have to cancel a foreclosure sale date because loss mitigation retention options are only available to owner-occupants, the FHA explained in a frequently-asked-questions guidance on the revised requirements for loss mitigation retention options. The FHA announced the changes last month in an effort to ...

The secondary market value of residential mortgage servicing rights has been in the doldrums since the housing bust, but all that could change in the coming months – thanks to both new investor interest and rising rates. And not only are values picking up but so are deals and the number of MSR valuations performed by analytic firms. “We’ve brokered 15 to 20 deals in 2012,” said Mark Garland, president of MountainView Servicing Group. “Last year we did half that.” In 2012, MountainView performed...

Industry observers are holding out fading hope that Congress will act on time-sensitive mortgage-related bills before the lame-duck session draws to a close, but as the clock winds down, real estate interests are already adjusting their legislative expectations for 2013. At the top of the list of mortgage bills being watched closely is the extension of the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act of 2007. The law exempts up to $2 million in mortgage debt forgiven by a lender in a short sale, loan modification or foreclosure from federal taxation. Despite support from both political parties, industry groups and consumer advocates, legislative efforts to renew the act have...

The retreat of some large loan aggregators from the mortgage market has been a challenge for many small loan originators, but Federal Home Loan Bank officials say the Mortgage Partnership Financing Xtra program has gone a long way to pick up the slack. Through MPF Xtra, six FHLBanks provide member institutions an alternative for selling first mortgages that they originate that allows them to retain customer relationships without taking on interest rate and prepayment risk. The program is one of several options under the Mortgage Partnership Finance program, which is run and managed by the FHLBank of Chicago. Introduced in 1997, the MPF provided...

Two separate white papers from industry trade groups on reform of the government-sponsored enterprises call for a strong government role to provide stability and liquidity in multifamily mortgage finance. The Mortgage Bankers Association called for a system of private capital finance for multifamily housing, with a focus primarily on securitization and the federal government serving as a catastrophic insurer. The program would be funded through risk-based premiums paid by the entities that securitize the loans, according to Brian Stoffers, president of CBRE Debt and Equity Finance. “We recognize...

Analysts expect the U.S. economic recovery to continue on a slow, weak path into 2013 with the potential for a new recession that could weaken the residential MBS market. At Standard & Poor’s, analysts predict a “slow and uneven” economic recovery with a 15 percent to 20 percent chance of another recession that would be less severe than the 2008-2009 financial crisis but potent enough to sap the MBS market. S&P assumes a reversal in home prices and unemployment rising to near 9 percent in 2013, which could hamper borrower capacity to make their mortgage payments. Overall, S&P’s outlook for the single-family MBS market is...

Despite the ever-increasing volume of political chatter that the White House is poised to nominate a new director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, industry observers tell Inside The GSEs they aren’t altogether convinced the Obama administration is able or even willing to effect agency regime change and assume full ownership of the GSEs at this time. Following President Obama’s re-election last month, speculation shifted quickly from “if” to “when” Edward DeMarco, a Bush-era hold-over who recently began his fourth year as the FHFA’s “temporary” head, would be replaced.

Despite gains in oversight and reform of the compensation packages for Fannie Mae’s and Freddie Mac’s top-level executives, the Federal Housing Finance Agency needs to beef up its reviews and examinations of the pay packages for the scores of vice presidents and directors currently employed by the two GSEs, according to the Finance Agency’s official watchdog. The FHFA’s Office of Inspector General report released this week noted a “significant cost” involved in the compensation of the two GSEs’ nearly 12,000 employees.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency announced this week that Steven Cross, the FHFA’s deputy director of the Division of Federal Home Loan Bank Regulation, will retire from the agency in March 2013. Cross served as the Finance Agency’s overseer of the 12 FHLBanks since the FHFA was created in October 2008, while simultaneously serving as the agency’s chief operating officer from September 2009 to December 2011. FHFA Acting Director Edward DeMarco credited Cross’ “vital role” during a “period of upheaval in the housing and financial markets and significant development and change at FHFA.”

Democrats are making another attempt to require the forgiveness of principal on delinquent mortgages guaranteed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as the White House and lawmakers are in talks to avoid the pending fiscal cliff. This week a group of 18 House Democrats dispatched a letter to President Obama and congressional leaders of both parties urging them to expand assistance to borrowers as part of any tax increase and spending cut resolution package. “Given the clear benefits of providing assistance to underwater borrowers, as well as the significant savings for the American taxpayers, we believe that provisions expanding such assistance should be part of any deal to resolve the fiscal cliff,” the members wrote. “At a minimum, such legislation should require that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac offer principal reduction loan modifications to borrowers who are net present value positive.”