HUD Announces Revised Implementation Date for HECM Financial Assessment Guidance. The Department of Housing and Urban Development further delayed the effective date of new guidance requiring a financial assessment of Home Equity Conversion Mortgage loan applicants. Issued in November last year, the new guidance becomes effective for HECM case numbers issued on or after April 27, 2015. The FHA said the change was due to a delay in efforts to align vendor software with HUD software to get the system up and running. Last month, HUD moved the guidance’s implementation date to March 2. The guidance requires lenders to evaluate borrowers’ willingness and capacity to meet their HECM obligations and to comply with program requirements. HUD Aligns QM Points-and-Fees Limit to Newly Recalculated CFPB Standards. The Department of Housing and Urban Development has aligned the points and fees limit under its qualified-mortgage rule to the ...
Mortgage delinquencies continue to decline, prompting servicers to focus on customer service and refinances as opposed to loan modifications. The Inside Mortgage Finance Large Servicer Delinquency Index declined by 32.7 basis points in the fourth quarter of 2014 compared with the previous quarter. The 24 servicers tracked by the index had a delinquency rate of 6.34 percent in the fourth quarter compared with a rate of 7.59 percent in the fourth quarter of 2013. The Inside Mortgage Finance data are not seasonally adjusted. Improvements in performance were seen...[Includes one data chart]
At Dec. 31, depositories held $964.2 billion of pass-through securities issued by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae, a gain of 1.3 percent from the third quarter.
The flow of refinance mortgages to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac increased during the fourth quarter, but the two GSEs continued to see declining volume in the Home Affordable Refinance Program. According to figures from the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Fannie and Freddie securitized 432,376 refinance mortgages in the fourth quarter, up 11.1 percent from the previous period. Fannie had the bigger gain, 16.2 percent. But total HARP activity fell 15.3 percent from the third quarter, and for the year it was down 75.9 percent from 2013 levels. The biggest slowdown in HARP were mortgages with loan-to-value ratios exceeding 105 percent. Both GSEs are doing more non-HARP streamlined refi business than in the program set up in 2009 for underwater ... [with two exclusive charts] ...
Only one lender accounted for more than 10 percent of the single-family mortgage volume completed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in 2014: Wells Fargo. The bank also dominates deliveries to Ginnie Mae and originations of jumbo mortgages. Wells had $180.89 billion in mortgage originations in 2014, accounting for 14.6 percent of total mortgage originations, according to Inside Mortgage Finance. The bank’s share of mortgage originations declined from 18.9 percent in 2013 as refinance activity slowed and nonbanks made efforts to compete for production and servicing. Officials at Wells said...
The wholesale-broker channel was the only mortgage production arena to see increased volume in the fourth quarter of 2014, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance analysis and ranking. Brokers originated an estimated $34 billion in new home loans during the final three months of 2014, a gain of 6.3 percent from the previous quarter. The wholesale-broker channel gradually recovered from a disastrous first quarter, when brokers saw their market share slide to just 9.0 percent. By the end of the year, it was up to 10.0 percent. The broker channel generated...[Includes four data charts]
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