Fannie Mae has announced new enhancements to its 97 percent loan-to-value mortgage product, including acceptance of FHA-approved housing counseling, to help attract more borrowers.The improvements would expand access to HomeReady, which allows borrowers to pay as little as 3 percent down on a home purchase. The 3 percent may include income from non-borrower household members. Fannie said it would accept one-on-one, pre-purchase counseling from providers that have been approved by the Department of Housing and Urban Development for FHA borrowers. The goal is to help conventional borrowers meet HomeReady’s homeownership education requirements. Later this year, Fannie will offer lenders a $500 credit to encourage borrowers to take advantage of the housing counseling option to help sustain long-term homeownership. In addition, Fannie simplified income-eligibility requirements for ...

FHA has announced updates to the Electronic Appraisal Delivery (EAD) portal and FHA Connection (FHAC) to make it easier for entities to view and work with appraisal reports. The latest improvement would ensure that EAD portal users, lenders/underwriters in particular, are approving appraisal reports for the FHA case number assigned to them. The FHA also released guidance regarding case transfers in relation to appraisal reports in the EAD portal and FHA Connection. If, prior to case transfer, the original mortgagee uploaded an appraisal, the new mortgagee to whom the case was transferred will be unable to view the appraisal in EAD. Hence, the new mortgagee must obtain a copy of the appraisal from the original mortgagee and submit it through the EAD portal. The original mortgagee must first transfer the case number to the new mortgagee in FHAC. Once the case transfer is complete, the ...

USMI Names MGIC Chief as Chairman. U.S. Mortgage Insurance has tapped Patrick Sinks, chief executive of MGIC Investment Corp., to be the trade group’s new chairman. Sinks succeeds USMI Chairman Rohit Gupta, president and CEO of Genworth Mortgage Insurance. Sinks served previously as USMI’s vice chairman. Bradley Shuster, chairman/chief executive for NMI Holdings, will take overNew Reverse-Mortgage Product. California Mortgage Advisors has expanded its reverse-mortgage menu, with the addition of a non-FHA reverse mortgage option of up to $6 million for select clients. With the new product, CMA joins a handful of private reverse-mortgage lenders that will consider properties valued up to $6 million. Last year, American Advisors Group, the largest Home Equity Conversion Mortgage lender, announced its AAG Advantage lending program, which features the ...

Financial Freedom’s operation is the subject of an investigation being conducted by the HUD IG's office...

As federal programs to help underwater borrowers are phased out, government agencies want the mortgage industry to pick up where it left off to help troubled homeowners avoid foreclosure. They suggested that future programs be accessible, affordable, sustainable, transparent and have sufficient accountability. The Federal Housing Finance Agency, Department of Treasury, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development released a report this week that discussed what future loss mitigation programs should look like and lessons learned. The Home Affordable Modification Program and related federal initiatives will sunset at the end of 2016. “With the formal end of the crisis-era programs, the mortgage servicing industry will shoulder...

Some banks nearly tripled their bulk MSR acquisitions in 2Q16. SunTrust, for example, bought $7.41 billion of GSE servicing during the period, making it the third most active buyer in the market.

Several large banks accept the current acknowledgement agreement, while others avoid it like the plague.

“Most real estate agents say high loan-to-value ratio mortgages are readily available, especially for homebuyers with good credit,” said Tom Popik, research director for Campbell Surveys.

The secondary market in mortgage servicing rights rebounded during the second quarter of 2016 after starting the year with a thud, according to an exclusive Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of mortgage-securities disclosures by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae. The three agencies saw a combined $42.95 billion of MSR change hands in bulk transactions during the second quarter. That was up 20.6 percent from the first quarter, when ... [Includes two data charts]

Nonbanks serviced $2.155 trillion of agency MSR as of the end of June, a 3.4 percent increase in three months.