The 3 percent downpayment mortgages announced this week by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac should be a better deal than similar FHA financing for stronger-credit borrowers, according to analysts. Final details of the conventional 97 loan-to-value ratio products were released this week to mixed but mostly favorable reviews. Although aimed at first-time homebuyers in Fannie’s MyCommunityMortgage and Freddie’s Home Possible programs, the products are also available for refinances of existing GSE loans.Only 30-year, fixed-rate loans are eligible and the home must be the borrower’s primary residence. In Fannie’s case, borrowers who go through MCM would pay lower upfront loan-level price adjustments. Freddie requires that the loans go through Home Possible. Analysts with FBR Capital Markets said the government-sponsored enterprises’ ...

A proposed FHA administrative fee as high as 4 basis points to fund quality assurance enforcement and technology upgrades also went down in flames.

Quicken Loans, the nation’s largest nonbank lender, recently offered a lender-paid mortgage insurance “sale” through loan brokers, committing $100 million to the effort and wrapping up the promotion in roughly 60 hours. According to Tod Highfield, vice president of loan production at Quicken, the sale wasn’t designed to hit any volume targets per se, but was meant to heighten the firm’s profile among certain segments of the origination market, namely brokers, credit unions and community banks. The offer was pitched...

But there's one little wrinkle: the GSEs cannot pass the cost of funding the HTF onto lenders…

The Obama administration announced increased incentive payments for borrowers in the non-agency Home Affordable Modification Program along with an increase in funds for borrowers that need relocation assistance as part of a short sale or deed-in-lieu of foreclosure. Meanwhile, there are concerns that the HAMP program for mortgages serviced by the government-sponsored enterprises hasn’t been extended to match the non-agency program. The changes to the non-agency HAMP were announced late last week by the Treasury Department and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. HAMP borrowers will be eligible...

The FHA temporary waiver was issued in November of last year and now has been extended to Aug. 31, 2016.

A spokesman for Ocwen – which is also the nation’s eighth largest Ginnie Mae servicer – declined to comment on anything having to do with buyouts.

Because of the irregular nature of legal settlements and contractor backlogs, the FHA did not properly recognize its receivables, the IG said.

Many of those winning bidders are hedge funds with Wall Street backing, including Lone Star Funds and Bayview Asset Management.

The $227 million portfolio is top heavy with California product which accounts for roughly 62 percent of the receivables.