NewLeaf Wholesale has announced Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) guidelines for its FHA and VA mortgage products. PACE financing allows homeowners to retrofit their homes to make them more energy-efficient. The homeowner pays the loan as part of their property tax bill. In some states, PACE liens have superior status over all other liens, including a mortgage loan. A PACE assessment is a debt of property, where the obligation is tied to the property as opposed to the property owner. Hence, when the property is sold the new owner assumes the PACE lien. Last year, the FHA and VA issued guidance for approving purchase and refinance of mortgaged properties with PACE liens provided certain requirements are met. One requirement is that past due PACE loan amounts retain a first-lien position and this has raised some concern among industry groups that are opposed to ...
A property management contractor for the Department of Housing and Urban Development has agreed to pay $4.3 million to resolve allegations that it billed the agency for FHA-related work it did not perform in violation of the federal False Claims Act. Cityside Management Corp. of Manchester, NH, allegedly failed to inspect the work of third-party vendors that it hired to perform termite inspections, treatments and repairs on repossessed houses in HUD’s real estate-owned inventory, as required by its contract with HUD. HUD’s inspector general investigated the case and referred it to the Department of Justice. Following the financial crisis, HUD held title to a large number of foreclosed homes acquired by borrowers with FHA financing. HUD contracted with various field service managers, including Cityside, to prepare the REO properties for resale. According to the Office of the U.S. Attorney for the ...
The Department of Housing and Urban Development is seeking public comment as well as approval from the Office of Management and Budget for a number of new or expired data collections relating to key FHA programs and issues. Out for a 30-day comment period are proposed data collections relating to the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage program, condominium project approval, claims and conveyance, and property inspection and preservation. Specifically, HUD has asked OMB to reinstate currently approved information collection, which is necessary to screen HECM applications to protect the FHA insurance fund, consumers and taxpayers. HUD also wants OMB approval to extend the forms used to determine the eligibility of borrowers and mortgage transactions for FHA insurance. In addition, HUD’s HECM counseling form was revised to include a property address line for purchase transactions and ...
VA Announces VALERI Offline Dates. Due to a legacy loan purge, the Department of Veterans Affairs’ VA Loan Electronic Reporting Interface (VALERI) will be unavailable for loading servicing data. VALERI will be offline on the following dates; Aug. 4, 8 p.m. to Aug. 5, 11:59 p.m.; Aug. 11, 8 p.m. to Aug. 13, 12 noon; Aug. 18, 8 p.m. to Aug. 19, 11:59 p.m.; and Sept. 22, 8 p.m. to Sept. 23, 11:59 p.m. All times are EST. Senate Banking Panel Advances HUD Nominees. The Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs has sent HUD nominations for consideration by the full Senate. On July 27, the committee approved by voice vote the nominations of J, Paul Compton Jr. and Anna Farias for HUD general counsel and assistant secretary for fair housing, respectively. Beal Rackleff’s nomination for HUD assistant secretary for community planning and development also was approved by voice vote ...
The Senate Committee on Appropriations last week unanimously approved legislation setting aside $40.2 billion in discretionary funding for the Department of Housing and Urban Development for fiscal 2018. The Senate HUD appropriations bill passed by a vote of 31-0 and, like the House version, did not include authority for HUD to charge a fee to cover FHA’s administrative costs and systems upgrades as proposed in the Trump administration’s budget request. Rather, both bills set aside $130 million for administrative expenses with the House adding another $5 million for technological improvements. In addition, the committee recommended...
Cowen & Co. analyst Jaret Seiberg believes the Senate Banking Committee remains on track to unveil GSE reform legislation late in the fourth quarter...
A few big-ticket corporate shifts in mortgage strategy led to a surge in bulk transfers of agency mortgage servicing rights during the second quarter of 2017, according to an exclusive Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of agency mortgage-backed securities data. A total of $133.36 billion of servicing attached to single-family MBS issued by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae changed hands during the most recent quarter. That was up 21.5 percent from ... [Includes two data charts]
House Democrats are trying to persuade Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson to reinstate a 25-basis-point FHA mortgage insurance premium cut scheduled under the Obama administration, citing continuing improvement of the FHA Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund. In a letter to Carson last week, 21 Democrats led by Rep. Joyce Beatty, OH, called upon the secretary to place homeownership within the reach of families, especially millennials and minorities, by lowering the FHA annual MIP rates to the same level that was announced during the waning days of the Obama administration. On Jan. 9, 2017, encouraged by the strong recovery of the MMI Fund, former HUD Secretary Julian Castro announced...
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