The Department of Housing and Urban Development will face intense scrutiny from lawmakers after revelations this week that the department may have suppressed information indicating much higher projected losses for the FHA Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund than it reported to Congress. Rep. Darrell Issa, R-CA, chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, raised the issue in a May 29 letter to FHA Commissioner Carol Galante, citing suspicious email exchanges between certain top FHA officials and Tyler Yang, chairman and chief executive officer of Integrated Financial Engineering, which performed the FY 2012 actuarial audit of the fund. The letter is...

Despite the best efforts of supporters readying another push to legislatively enhance the Home Affordable Refinance Program, a proposed HARP 3.0 bill in the Senate will ultimately remain a once-interesting idea whose time has passed, say industry observers. From its initial introduction during the 112th Congress through subsequent tweaking and refiling earlier this year, the Responsible Homeowner Refinancing Act of 2013, S. 249, by Sens. Robert Menendez, D-NJ, and Barbara Boxer, D-CA, has struggled to gain traction in the Senate. The Obama administration has mounted...

The FHA said it is working to define a “qualified mortgage” standard that meets the QM criteria under the Dodd-Frank Act, which takes higher priced mortgages into account.

The MSR sales machine is cranking up at MountainView.

Is a scandal brewing at FHA concerning how it handled the independent audit of the Mutual Mortgage Insurance fund or is it "politics"?

The U.S. Solicitor General has asked the Supreme Court of the United States not to grant the petition for certiorari pending in Township of Mount Holly v. Mt. Holly Gardens Citizens in Action, Inc., a case that raises the question of whether disparate impact claims can be brought under the Fair Housing Act. Mt. Holly involves a challenge to a redevelopment plan in the Mount Holly Township of New Jersey over questions as to whether it was having a disparate impact on minorities. Last summer, the township formally asked the SCOTUS...

The measure would amend the state constitution to authorize reverse mortgages for purchase of a homestead property in Texas.

We continue to hear reports that certain commercial banks are discouraging their residential loan officers to take the state test and get licensed.

Even a fraction of the shadow inventory falling into foreclosure could considerably swell HUD and GSE ownership of REO properties.

According to industry sources, the FHA recently sent out administrative letters to a handful of residential lenders. Meanwhile, yet another new subprime originator has emerged.