A federal employee union and the Department of Housing and Urban Development have agreed to implement a seven-day employee furlough because of a severe mandatory reduction in HUD’s budget in FY 2013. The seven furlough days, which also will affect FHA operations, will apply to HUD’s entire 9,100-person work force and will be spread out to one for each pay period beginning May 24. HUD initially proposed a 13-day furlough plan, which was to start May 10, but agreed to reduce it to seven days and to move the start date to May 24. Under an agreement between HUD and the American Federation of Government Employees Council 222, furlough days will occur on ...
Legislation that would provide the FHA with tools to strengthen its finances and ensure its long-term solvency has been reintroduced in the House of Representatives. It is uncertain whether Republican leaders, given their concerns, would be willing to take up the Democrat-sponsored bill. The bill, the FHA Emergency Fiscal Solvency Act, would give the FHA more flexibility to take action against lenders that show excessive early default and claims rates. It would also authorize the FHA to require a mortgagee to indemnify the agency for improperly written loans. The bill’s co-sponsors, Rep. Maxine Waters, D-CA, and Rep. Michael Capuano, D-MA, hope for ...
The mortgage banking industry is backing a proposal by the Department of Housing and Urban Development to reduce the loan-to-value ratio on FHA-insured mortgage loans over $625,500 from 96.5 percent to 95 percent. In effect, the proposal would raise the minimum downpayment on FHA-insured jumbo loans from 3.5 percent to 5 percent. According to the Mortgage Bankers Association, the proposal would help return FHA to its historical core mission of providing first-time, minority and low- and moderate-income homebuyers access to affordable mortgage credit. The proposal is also designed to encourage the return of ...
Streamline refinancing helped boost FHA origination volume as lenders reported substantial increases on monthly and year-over-year bases, according to Inside FHA Lending’s latest analysis of FHA data. Despite increases in mortgage insurance premium and other policy changes aimed at reducing FHA market share and strengthening the Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund, FHA endorsements were up 18.7 percent in January 2013 from December 2012, and a hefty 38.7 percent from January last year. However, FHA refis accounted for 54.3 percent of total production while purchase mortgages made up ... [1 chart]
Ginnie Mae servicing volume was up modest 1.5 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012 and 9.1 percent higher from the previous year, with some eye-popping increases reported by several servicers. The top servicers of Ginnie Mae mortgage-backed securities reported $1.31 trillion in government-backed mortgage debt outstanding in the fourth quarter, up from $1.29 trillion from the previous quarter. Wells Fargo led the pack with $407.2 billion after posting gains on a quarterly and year-over-year basis while second-place Bank of America recorded a total of ... [1 chart]
Some underwriters in the private mortgage insurance space are rolling out new technology in their efforts to reacquire market share lost to the FHA even as market tidal forces continue to shift in favor of private MIs. Radian Guaranty, a subsidiary of Radian Group, has introduced its MI rate finder application, Radian Rates, for Android smart phone devices on Google Play. Designed as a mobile version of the company’s existing online rate finder, Radian Rates checks eligibility, compares options and automatically calculates the MI rate depending on the ...
The Department of Housing and Urban Development is tightening its oversight of principals in FHA-insured multifamily properties by requiring lenders to clear all requests for additional insurance commitments that exceed $250 million with HUD before approval. Recently issued guidance describes how lenders can obtain pre-approval from HUD when principals have FHA-insured assets greater than $250 million, including the proposed additional commitments. The department is concerned that FHA may be taking on too big a risk with such principals. HUD pre-approval is required to ...
Early on, one of the biggest problems with the Home Affordable Refinance Program was the inability of nonbank lenders to participate in the effort. Many were willing – but their warehouse lenders were nervous about putting high loan-to-value loans on their books, even for just a few weeks. But since last summer Fannie Mae, and to a lesser extent Freddie Mac, have made a concerted effort to allay the fears of warehouse financiers about the risk inherent in the loans. “Fannie Mae has basically been...[Includes one data chart]
A number of industry representatives are calling on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to carefully test its pending integrated consumer disclosure forms under the Truth in Lending Act and Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act before they are actually put into use. At issue is the CFPB’s proposal to conduct quantitative testing in fiscal years 2013 and 2014 of the performance of the current disclosures versus the proposed disclosures forthcoming later this year. “In 2008, the Department of Housing and Urban Development finalized...
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