The Department of Housing and Urban Development recently called upon lawmakers to restore funding for its housing counseling, a key eligibility requirement for borrowers under the FHA’s Home Equity Conversion Mortgage program. Deborah Holston, HUD acting deputy assistant secretary for single-family housing, told members of the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Insurance, Housing and Community Opportunity that the department has identified ways to streamline and improve the housing counseling program. House appropriators did not restore funding for the program in the draft FY 2012 appropriations bill released...

Granting the chief financial officer additional oversight authority as proposed by House Republicans would be excessive for a relatively small agency such as Ginnie Mae, the agency’s president told lawmakers. Testifying during a recent House subcommittee hearing on legislative proposals on FHA and Ginnie Mae reform, Ginnie Mae President Ted Tozer said that while he understands the committee’s concerns about the agency’s financial condition, he believes the provision is not necessary. Among other things, the proposal would give Ginnie Mae’s CFO a greater hand in overseeing operations to ensure that the agency is not...

Ginnie Mae has named PricewaterhouseCoopers as “Securitized Transaction Financial Advisor” for all multiclass securities transactions. Participants will be working with their new multiclass securitization advisor starting in October. All multiclass transaction documents must be emailed to GinnieMaeREMIC@us.pwc.com. The primary transaction contacts are Jim Campbell, Deal Management Team Lead (NY), at James.Campbell@us.pwc.com, (646) 471-6059, and Amanda Liu, Deal Management Team Lead (DC), at Amanda.Liu@us.pwc.com, (202) 414-1392...

Government mortgage programs don’t just dominate the mortgage origination business, they are also sitting on a huge inventory of real estate owned properties that are clogging the housing market recovery and adding to government budget problems. That spurred the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Federal Housing Finance Agency and the Treasury last month to look for public input on ways to minimize losses for taxpayers and increase private investment in housing, including property sales and joint ventures. The National Association of Realtors said the best way to deal with the large REO inventory is to...(includes data chart)

The Department of Housing and Urban Development said it would work with Congress to strengthen the FHA and Ginnie Mae in a way that protects taxpayers and facilitates the return of private capital despite its mixed views of a Republican draft bill to reform the two programs. Assistant Secretary for Housing and FHA Commissioner Carol Galante told members of the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Insurance, Housing and Economic Opportunity last week that HUD is willing to work with lawmakers to increase access to credit and strengthen risk management and lender enforcement. But while the GOP draft bill contained elements similar to...

A Senate lawmaker and the Mortgage Bankers Association warned House lawmakers that a narrow “qualified residential mortgage” rule will result in overuse of the FHA program and make it more difficult for private capital to re-enter the housing finance market. Testifying before the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Insurance, Housing and Economic Opportunity last week, Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-GA, said the six federal agencies charged with crafting risk-retention requirements apparently failed to consider the impact of a narrow QRM rule on the FHA program. Isakson, who co-authored a Senate exception to...

Ginnie Mae in a conference call with its MBS issuers said it is going to be focusing its attention on new definitions related to data collection, and urged industry participants to provide feedback. Currently, the loan-to-value ratio definition stands as the ratio of the current unpaid principal balance amount to the appraised value, estimated value or purchase price of the property, and that value must include the upfront mortgage insurance premium. Under the new definition, however, the LTV ratio would be based on the original principal balance, said Ginnie officials. This includes any mortgage insurance premium to lower the sale price or...

The Department of Housing and Urban Development is urging Congress not to raise the minimum downpayment on FHA mortgage loans, saying that downpayments are not the best indicator of loan defaults. Testifying before the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Insurance, Housing and Community Opportunity, Acting Assistant Secretary for Housing/FHA Commissioner Carol Galante warned that a legislative proposal to raise FHA’s minimum downpayment requirement to 5 percent would forestall recovery in the housing market and restrict access to credit for worthy borrowers. Galante said HUD has not made any determination as to ...

The Department of Housing and Urban Development is pondering its next move after discussing with mortgage industry representatives their concerns about extending the current forbearance period for unemployed homeowners to a maximum of 12 months. HUD and FHA officials met recently with the Mortgage Bankers Association and several small mortgage servicers, which took issue with FHA’s recently revised forbearance policy. HUD declined to discuss the outcome of the meeting, saying it was more about understanding the industry’s concerns and discussing solutions. “No decision has been made as to whether we can or will make any changes, but we are looking into the issues they have raised,” said a HUD spokesman. On July 7, the FHA announced ...

Losses on re-performing FHA/VA mortgage pools are expected to rise as servicers cut back on the claims they submit to the Department of Housing and Urban Development and pass on to mortgage securitization trusts instead, according to a recent analysis by Moody’s Investors Service. With FHA experiencing increasing losses in its portfolio, HUD is scrutinizing claims more vigorously for servicing or underwriting defects, which may serve as a basis for denying claims on re-performing FHA/VA pools. Servicers are also required to bring the property to an acceptable conveyance condition. Furthermore, HUD imposes very strict timeline guidelines that FHA servicers must follow. Given the recent servicing irregularities and staffing constraints due to rising defaults, servicers may not always ...