Originations of FHA mortgages increased by 15.7 percent in the second quarter of 2012 compared with the previous quarter, according to an Inside FHA Lending analysis. The increase was driven by purchase mortgages and FHA-to-FHA refinances. Some $57.82 billion forward single-family mortgages were originated in the second quarter of 2012, the strongest quarter of FHA originations since the fourth quarter of 2010. Originations through two quarters in 2012 were also up 7.7 percent compared with the first half of 2011 ... [Includes two charts]

The recently reduced premiums for the FHA Streamline Refinance program have resulted in an influx of refi applications, according to officials with the Department of Housing and Urban Development. In the first 30 days after the premiums were reduced, monthly refi applications were on pace to be about eight times typical levels.“Where FHA normally processes about 17,000 applications per month, we’ve already seen more than 75,000 applications in less than three weeks,” HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan said ...

A number of lender trade groups suggested last week that federal regulators should establish standards for “qualified mortgages” for government loans that are separate from rules to be issued by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The ability-to-repay rules were required by the Dodd-Frank Act. The FHA, VA, Department of Agriculture and Rural Housing Service can establish their own QM requirements in consultation with the CFPB. Before last week, there had been little discussion about separate QM standards for ...

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau re-opened the comment period on rules for “qualified mortgages” in June after receiving data from the Federal Housing Finance Agency that showed the relation between delinquencies and borrowers’ debt-to-income ratios. The CFPB asked for similar data on FHA loans. The FHA provided the CFPB with such data last week for fiscal years 2004 through 2008, excluding Home Equity Conversion Mortgages and mortgages with seller-funded downpayment assistance. During that period, 63.3 percent of ...

The Department of Housing and Urban Development this week announced a major expansion of bulk sales of distressed FHA loans. Some 9,000 loans are up for auction on Sept. 12, nearly double the amount HUD initially expected to offer and four times the amount of loans sold through the Distressed Asset Stabilization Program since 2010. In April, HUD completed an auction of 279 FHA mortgages with an unpaid principal balance of $59.0 million. If the loans for sale in September have a similar average balance ...

The Department of Agriculture issued a final rule last week to implement a new annual fee for the Rural Housing Service Section 502 Single Family Housing Guaranteed Loan Program. The fee applies to all RHS Section 502 loans with a conditional commitment dated on or after Oct. 1, 2011. The fee for fiscal year 2012 is 0.3 percent and the USDA noted that the fee for subsequent years is subject to change, with a fee of up to 0.5 percent allowed. The fee – along with the up-front guarantee fee already charged by the USDA ...

Ten previously optional fields on the FHA’s TOTAL Scorecard will be required with the release of TOTAL Scorecard Version 3.0. Some pending applications will be “grandfathered” under the previous TOTAL Scorecard requirements for 90 days. The new required fields are: borrower paid closing costs, current housing expenses, gift letter amount, gift letter source, required investment, total closing costs, total fixed payment, seller concessions, downpayment and condominium indicator. The new version of the scorecard ...

Record low interest rates and loosened underwriting guidelines have induced strong refinance activity during the first half of 2012. Industry participants agree that the refi boom will continue through the third quarter of 2012, but then predictions get hazy. During Wells Fargo’s earnings presentation for the second quarter last week, Timothy Sloan, a senior executive vice president and CFO at the bank, downplayed suggestions that refi activity has declined this month compared with June. “The business is good and we’re optimistic about it,” he said. “Very optimistic,” added...

Thousands of ineligible tax cheats received FHA-insured mortgage loans under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 even though federal tax regulations prohibited tax debtors from obtaining government-backed mortgages, the Government Accountability Office reported in a new study. The report found that 6,327 borrowers, who owed a total of $77.6 million in federal taxes, were able to obtain more than $1.44 billion in FHA-insured mortgages under the ARRA. Of these borrowers, 3,815 individuals claimed and received $27.4 million under the statute’s temporary First-Time Homebuyer Credit program. The GAO’s analysis included ...

Some FHA borrowers are still having difficulty obtaining lower-cost streamline refinancing even though the FHA has said it will accept streamline loans with “no credit check, income verification or appraisal.” Borrowers said they are still encountering credit checks, income verification and other obstacles, which indicate that lenders are disregarding FHA instructions regarding the enhanced streamline refi program. Even though FHA guidelines are in place, lenders are adding their credit overlays to the detriment of FHA borrowers seeking to ...