Some real estate agents and lenders are discouraging veterans and active military personnel from using a VA loan to purchase a home because of misconceptions about the VA Home Loan Guaranty program, a top official of the National Association of Realtors said. Testifying recently before the House Committee on Veteran Affairs, Sherrie Meadows, NAR vice president, acknowledged that some lenders and real estate agents steer their clients away from VA loans because the process could be prohibitive. “They think...
The Obama administration’s recently proposed federal budget is projecting a $61 million profit for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Section 502 single-family guaranteed housing program in FY 2017. The president’s budget proposal projects $900 million in new direct USDA rural housing mortgage loans in fiscal 2017, the same number of loans projected for fiscal 2016. For 2017, the USDA is seeking...
FHA lenders are anticipating long-awaited guidance from the Department of Housing and Urban Development implementing sweeping changes related to reverse-mortgage borrowers in default for not paying their taxes and insurance. But don’t be surprised if HUD issues additional guidance before the implementation date, said James Wright, an attorney with Bradley Arant Boult Cummings’ Birmingham office. First announced in April 2015, the guidance sets...
The Department of Housing and Urban Development has revised reasonable diligence timeframes in 32 jurisdictions and provided guidance on judicial foreclosure of FHA loans in the District of Columbia. The updated timeframes are effective for all cases in which the deadline for taking the first legal action in a foreclosure occurs on or after Jan. 1, 2016. The revised schedule of attorney fees is...
The Department of Veterans Affairs has entered into an agreement with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to manage and market the latter’s inventory of real estate-owned single-family and multifamily properties. Mike Frueh, director of the VA Home Loan Guaranty Program, revealed the agreement during a recent hearing by the House Committee on Veterans Affairs on the state of program. Frueh told...
Carol Galante, former head of the FHA, has been named to Ocwen Financial’s board of directors. Galante left the FHA in August 2014 to take on the position of faculty director with the Terner Center for Housing Innovation at the University of California, Berkeley. Current director Phyllis Caldwell was elevated...
Originators that fund billions of dollars each quarter use futures and options to hedge their pipelines. It’s the smaller players that may have encountered secondary-market charges.
Private MIs finished third in agency refinance loans, partly because the Fannie/Freddie program for refinancing underwater borrowers continued to slow down.