Correspondent lenders and mortgage brokers continue to account for an unusually large share of FHA and VA lending, according to a new analysis by Inside FHA/VA Lending. During the first six months of 2018, correspondent-lending programs accounted for 53.3 percent of government-insured mortgage production, according to survey data reported by a broad cross-section of the market. At the same time, correspondent production accounted for 46.4 percent of conventional-conforming lending and a mere 16.1 percent of the non-agency jumbo market. The heavy reliance on agency securitization in both the conventional and government-insured sectors helps explain the higher levels of correspondent production. For many smaller shops, it is more economical to sell production to aggregators than pay the overhead costs of dealing directly with the agencies. In the government-insured sector, some banks are ... [Chart]
Ginnie Mae assured the mortgage industry that it would accept so-called VA orphan loans as long as they satisfy the terms of corrective legislation passed by the House Financial Services Committee recently. “As long as the mortgage loan complies with the law, we will accept it and put our guarantee on it,” said an agency spokesperson in response to an Inside FHA/VA Lending inquiry. Ginnie’s assurance provides certainty to a subset of VA loans that have been in limbo since June because they could not be delivered into Ginnie mortgage-backed securities. Lawmakers responded to industry calls for a legislative fix last week by voting overwhelmingly to approve H.R. 6737, the “Protect Affordable Mortgages for Veterans Act of 2018.” Introduced by Rep. Lee Zeldin, R-NY, the bill would eliminate the seasoning requirements in the recently enacted Dodd-Frank Act reform legislation, which conflicted with ...
Originations of government-insured mortgages rose 11.2 percent from the first to the second quarter of 2018, according to Inside Mortgage Finance estimates. That increase was slightly lower than the 17.1 percent gain in total first-lien originations over that period. The big winner for the second quarter was the jumbo sector, where loan volume surged 33.5 percent from the first three months of the year. On a year-to-date basis, government lending was down 12.6 percent from the first half of 2017. This reflects the steep decline in refinance lending in general, which affected FHA/VA production significantly. Jumbo lending was also down, by 6.6 percent, from the first six months of last year, but the conventional-conforming market saw a 4.2 percent gain at the midway point in 2018. FHA/VA loans accounted for 22.8 percent of first-lien originations in the first half of 2018. The government share for all of last year was ... [Chart]
It looks like the Department of Housing and Urban Development will not be able meet its September target date for rolling out its long-awaited FHA condominium reform rule. Such is the consensus among stakeholders whose hopes were raised when HUD Secretary Ben Carson told the House Financial Services Committee in June that he would be issuing the rule this month. “HUD and the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (within the Office of Management and Budget) want to release the rules with the updated Single Family Handbook and they are still working on that,” said a real estate industry executive. He added that despite what Carson said at the committee hearing, “September is not likely for a release.” As of press time, the final condo reform rule had not yet been delivered for OMB review, a process that in the past has taken months to complete. In contrast, it took about a ...
The delinquency rates on the approximately 7.9 million FHA loans outstanding fell by 20.7 basis points in August from the previous month, according to an Inside FHA/VA Lending analysis of FHA data. About 11.24 percent of FHA loans were in various stages of delinquency at the end of August. An estimated 4.73 percent of active FHA loans were 30-60 days past due while 3.90 percent were 90-plus days seriously delinquent at midpoint of the third quarter. FHA loans that were 60 to 90 days delinquent accounted for 1.56 percent of FHA loans outstanding while 1.05 percent of loans were in foreclosure. Texas, which accounted for 805,535 of total FHA loans being serviced, reported 11.4 percent of the loans as delinquent or in foreclosure. Second-place California showed a 7.39 percent delinquency/foreclosure rate overall. The state’s foreclosure rate was at a very low 0.53 percent. New Jersey and Louisiana ... [Chart]
The Mortgage Bankers Association expressed support for a proposed collection of a system user fee in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s single-family housing guaranteed loan program while underscoring the need for transparency and accountability regarding the use of the funds. “The [USDA] should be clear that it is limited in the scope of acceptable uses for the funds and that these funds will not be used for unspecified or unrelated activities,” the trade group said in its comment letter. The call for closer oversight of the proposed user-fees was among several recommendations the MBA made regarding the USDA proposal. Published in the July 13 Federal Register, the proposal would authorize the USDA to assess and collect a $25 fee from lenders for information technology upgrades. The fee will be collected through the USDA’s Lender Loan Closing (LLC) system when a loan goes to ...
Loss rates for notes sold in the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s distressed asset sales program are lower than those for notes that pass through the traditional conveyance claim process, according to HUD’s inspector general. An IG audit found that the DASP loss rate was more than 3 percentage points lower than the loss rate of similar conveyance notes. The IG took into account the losses for actual DASP sales and real estate-owned conveyance claims during the same audit period, the IG said. Ultimately, the DASP program saved the FHA insurance fund more money than the conveyance process, the report concluded. The FHA Office of Housing conducts mortgage loan sales under the Single Family Loan Sale Initiative, and most distressed notes are sold through DASP. The initiative aims to maximize recoveries to the ...
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