Lender Violated FHA’s ‘Outside Employment’ Rule. The Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of the Inspector General recommended action against a Las Vegas FHA lender for violating the agency’s rules on outside employment and timely quality control reviews. An OIG audit of All Western Mortgage, a former loan correspondent and current nonsupervised FHA lender, found that two of the company’s loan officers were allowed to moonlight as real estate agents. To their credit, the two loan officers originated just ...

The mortgage industry is banking heavily on a resurging purchase-mortgage market to help ease the pain of declining refinance volume in 2013 and beyond, and the slow start for the sector this year may be largely due to seasonal factors. Purchase-mortgage originations in the first three months of 2013 were down by 12.5 percent from the fourth quarter of 2012, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance ranking and analysis. That was a considerably bigger decline than the 2.1 percent drop in refinance lending, which accounted for a hefty 76.2 percent of total mortgage originations in early 2013. But the estimated $119.0 billion in purchase-mortgage originations during the first quarter was...[Includes three data charts]

According to new FHA rules, no less than 20 percent of a lender’s required net worth must be in the form of liquid assets consisting of cash or an equivalent.

Not only is HUD looking into PHH's underwriting practices, but the government has questions about the lender's foreclosure expenses.

Even as industry chatter increases about an effort to extend the eligibility date of the Home Affordable Refinance Program, analysts speculate that more HARP may be too much of a good thing for the mortgage market. Analysts at Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cite evidence of a “creeping goal line” to move back by 12 months the June 1, 2009, cut-off date for HARP eligibility. KBW cites a Saturday morning address by President Obama earlier this month on the subject of refinance. “While he did not specifically mention extending HARP, we think an announcement could be coming over the next few weeks to extend the eligibility back one year,” said KBW. More telling, said BAML, is...

Ginnie Mae issuers may buy out mortgage loans that are due but unpaid for four consecutive installments even if the borrower has made partial payments.

Thomas Popik, research director for Campbell Surveys, said first-time buyer demand appears to be leveling off due to changes at the FHA.

FHA jumbo lenders produced an estimated $5.44 billion in loans over $417,000 during the first three months of the year.

Thanks to coming changes in FHA’s mortgage insurance premium cancellation policy, investors in the secondary market met avoid these loans.

MBS issuers, under a new proposal, will have greater leeway in buying delinquent mortgages out of Ginnie Mae pools.