The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is seeking comment and information on mortgages not financed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, including those insured and guaranteed by the federal government, as it reopened the public discussion for the proposed “ability to repay” rule. New data the Federal Housing Finance Agency provided to the CFPB after the close of the rulemaking’s comment period spurred the bureau to reopen the comment period until July 9, 2012. The new FHFA data track the performance of loans purchased or guaranteed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from 1997 to 2011. The CFPB also has obtained data on ...

The volume of new mortgages with FHA insurance jumped 25.1 percent in April from a year ago, continuing the heightened production pace in government lending seen during the first three months of 2012. Excluding Home Equity Conversion Mortgage originations, FHA lending in April improved not only on a year-over-year basis but also on a monthly basis. FHA lenders combined for $19.2 billion in new FHA endorsements for the month, up 8.2 percent from March and from $17.7 billion in April of last year, according to Inside FHA Lending’s analysis of FHA data. FHA’s April originations rode on a surge of government-insured lending in the first quarter of 2012, during which the ... [1 Chart]

FHA servicers held approximately 7.5 million loans as of April 30, with the top 50 servicers accounting for 97.2 percent, an Inside FHA Lending analysis of agency data showed. Wells Fargo and Bank of America together held an estimated 4.0 million loans for a whopping 54.3 percent of the market. An estimated 2.0 percent of FHA loans serviced by Wells were delinquent, while BofA reported 19.2 percent of its FHA portfolio delinquent. Wells had a foreclosure rate of 2.17 percent while BofA had a 2.51 percent rate. JPMorgan Chase had 658,966 FHA loans, 18.8 percent in various stages of delinquency, and a market share of ... [1 Chart]

A proposal to replace the FHA’s current Tier Ranking System with a Servicer Performance Scorecard as a basis for determining servicer incentive payment is expected to be published in the Federal Register by the end of this month. In the previous issue of Inside FHA Lending (Volume 5, Issue 11, May 25), it was reported that a coalition of industry groups asked the FHA to adopt a private transfer fee rule in harmony with the final rule recently adopted by the Federal Housing Finance Agency. In a recent seller/servicer bulletin, Freddie Mac announced that, effective July 16, it will not purchase mortgages that are ...

Despite the sharp increase in production under the Home Affordable Refinance Program, the overwhelming majority of refinance mortgages financed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are well below current property values with substantial borrower equity. According to official data released late last week by the Federal Housing Finance Agency, HARP production jumped a whopping 93.4 percent in the first quarter of 2012, hitting a record 180,185 loans. HARP volume at Freddie was up more than double from the fourth quarter, while Fannie production jumped 79.8 percent. The first...(Includes three data charts)

It’s far too early for lawmakers to entertain another expansion of the Home Affordable Refinance Program given that the most recent tweak to the program, HARP 2.0, only just recently became fully active, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency. The FHFA has maintained that HARP 2.0 remains a work in progress given the revamped program’s graduated rollout of changes, but this week the Finance Agency said a proposed bill in the Senate to create HARP 3.0 would only get in the way. “The initial results on the enhanced HARP program show that it is working, and new legislation at this time would slow down that progress,” said FHFA Senior Associate Director for Housing and Regulatory Policy Meg Burns.

Bucking an overall slowdown in new mortgage originations during the first quarter of 2012, government-insured lending surged to its highest level since the end of 2010, according to a new ranking and analysis by Inside Mortgage Finance. A total of $83.0 billion of loans insured by the FHA, Veterans Administration and Rural Housing Service were originated during the first three months of the year, up 15.3 percent from the fourth quarter of 2011. That was in marked contrast to the 8.2 percent drop in conventional conforming originations and an overall 3.8 percent decline in total mortgage production during...

Although at least one Senate Republican shows interest in a plan to expand the Home Affordable Refinance Program, the outlook for Congressional action remains doubtful and House Democrats are pushing the Federal Housing Finance Agency to make further HARP changes administratively. During a Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee hearing last week on legislation to expand HARP, Sen. Bob Corker, R-TN, said he was open to the proposal. “I hope that we’ll have a real mark-up on this bill,” he said. Senate Democrats Robert Menendez (NJ) and Barbara Boxer (CA) have introduced legislation...

Ginnie Mae issued $80.9 billion of single-family mortgage-backed securities during the first quarter of 2012, an increase of 6.8 percent from the previous three-month period. It was the highest production level for the program since the end of 2010 and reflected a surge in FHA and VA refinance originations. Ginnie MBS issuance was up 2.3 percent from the first quarter of last year. Wells Fargo stretched its industry-leading market share to 40.1 percent in the first quarter. The company issued $32.5 billion in Ginnie single-family securities, a gain of 14.0 percent from the end of 2011, or about...

Complying with all the requirements of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act under the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is going to be a much different ballgame than had been the case when the Department of Housing and Urban Development was calling the shots, a leading industry attorney indicated recently. “The bottom line on RESPA enforcement [at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau] is that there are many enforcement powers and authorities at the bureau’s disposal,” Holly Spencer Bunting, a partner in the Washington, DC, office of K&L Gates LLP, told participants...