Mortgage originations last year increased by some $435 billion from 2011 and virtually all of that gain came from refinance activity. Unless housing activity begins to grow significantly faster, mortgage lending volume appears likely to drop significantly in 2013. Prodded along by the suddenly successful Home Affordable Refinance Program, refi lending increased by $403 billion last year, a 41.9 percent increase over 2011. And although a number of indicators suggested that housing sales were beginning to firm up, home-purchase mortgage originations were up just 6.3 percent – a gain of $32 billion – compared to the previous year. In fact, purchase-mortgage originations have been...[Includes three data charts]

The Mortgage Bankers Association urged the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to give all FHA loans a “conclusive presumption of compliance” with qualified mortgage requirements and to revise the QM annual percentage rate/average prime offer rate (APR/APOR) threshold for FHA loans at least until the agency issues its own QM rule. Failure to make the adjustments could severely restrict the availability of FHA loans to lower-income first-time homebuyers, which is the FHA’s traditional market, the trade group said. In comments on the CFPB’s final ability-to-repay rule, the MBA said...

Some lenders are concerned about the coming 'FHA Scorecard' and the ability of certain large funders to make their numbers look good.

Citadel Servicing has raised $200 million in capital to originate residential subprime mortgages. Does this mean subprime lending is "back"? Answer: yes and no.

FHA staff could be furloughed if the federal sequester happens Thursday night.

Wells Fargo has not given up on mortgage lending JVs after all and has hired someone to manage them.

A recent recommendation by the House Financial Services Committee to the FHA to consider charging “additional user fees” to strengthen and protect the Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund has raised questions in the industry as to what lawmakers meant by user fees. The FHA, apparently, has no authority to do so. In its recently published views and estimates related to the FY 2014 budget, the committee noted that while the FHA has increased its mortgage insurance premiums, lawmakers remain concerned that the agency “has failed to make full use of its existing authorities to protect the health of the fund.” The committee urged...

The Department of Housing and Development, and possibly Ginnie Mae, might be forced to place employees on furlough as a result of mandatory, across-the-board spending cuts scheduled to take effect on March 1. In recent testimony before the Senate Committee on Appropriations, Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan said sequestration would result in forced employee leaves or other personnel actions, which would affect many of the 9,000 HUD employees in 81 field offices around the country. Donovan said...

Inside Mortgage Finance has published updated private MI rankings to reflect survey data from United Guaranty

The proposed “Public Guarantor” to replace the government-sponsored enterprises would not only provide an explicit backstop for qualifying MBS in a post-GSE world, it would also serve as a regulator of sorts under terms spelled out in a housing policy paper issued this week. The report by the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Housing Commission called for a “far greater role” for the private sector in the mortgage market, a continued but limited role for the federal government, the graduated elimination of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and reform of the FHA. The BPC’s plan calls for...