The Department of Veterans Affairs this week expressed willingness to work with Congress and mortgage industry participants to find a solution to the agency’s ongoing appraiser shortage. Testifying during a hearing held by the House Veterans Affairs’ Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity, representatives of the VA Home Loan Guaranty Service, the National Association of Realtors, the Appraisal Institute and Clear Capital said the shortage of appraisers has led to long delays in obtaining appraisals and loan closings, as well as high appraisal costs. The VA appraisal program has been...
But isn’t the job of a conservator to preserve assets? If CRT deals are bad financially for Fannie and Freddie, isn’t it time to pull the plug on them?...
FHA-insured jumbo lending fell slightly in the fourth quarter of 2016 although year-over-year results were a lot better. Production of conforming-jumbo purchase and refinance loans insured by the FHA slipped 0.9 percent in the fourth quarter, a slight bump on the way to an annual jumbo origination total of $26.9billion. Year-over-year, FHA jumbo production was up 5.6 percent from 2015. Conforming-jumbo loans represented 9.8 percent of FHA loans securitized last year, according to data compiled by affiliated newsletter Inside Mortgage Finance. Purchase mortgages comprised 64.9 percent of jumbo loans insured by FHA in 2016 and 98.7 percent were fixed-rate loans. Nonbanks comprised the top five FHA jumbo lenders. Wells Fargo, which closed the year with $423.8 million in FHA jumbo originations, was in sixth place. Quicken Loans led the field with $802.5 million of ... [ Charts ]
The Department of Veterans Affairs and mortgage industry stakeholders are working to resolve the churning problem in the VA Home Loan Guaranty program. It appears the agency is unhappy that Ginnie Mae’s recent pooling policy change was only partially effective in discouraging early solicitation of VA purchase loans for refinancing. Apparently, the practice is continuing and is adversely affecting mortgage-backed securities investors who are not getting full return on their investments. The Mortgage Bankers Association said a handful of lenders and mortgage brokers are still engaging in serial refinancing of VA purchase loans within six months of closing, causing faster prepayments in Ginnie MBS pools. Ginnie announced a policy change, which took effect on Feb. 1, 2017, clarifying that streamline refinance loans may be delivered into Ginnie MBS pools only if, at the ...
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