Senate Republicans have threatened to block the confirmation of Carol Galante as head of the FHA until Senate Democrats come up with a plan to deal with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs this week voted 13 to 9 to send Galantes nomination to the Senate floor amid Republican calls to reject the nomination. Some Republicans expressed concern over the health of the FHA Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund, citing a recent independent actuarial study that reported a precarious drop in the funds excess capital reserve for unexpected losses. Sen. Jim DeMint, R-SC, said he did not think ...
The recent change in the FHAs maximum loan limits would have relatively limited impact for current borrowers trying to refinance, according to analysts. FHA loans insured prior to Oct. 1, 2011, were already grandfathered in for streamlined refinancing regardless of loan size, said analysts with J.P. Morgan Securities. In addition, the analysts said they do not expect many conventional jumbo-to-FHA refinances in this market segment because the mortgage insurance premiums make FHA loans less attractive. Last month, President Obama signed an appropriations bill into law, reinstating the pre-Oct. 1 formula for calculating the temporary loan limits for high-cost areas, which is ... [With one chart]
Expenses for maintaining foreclosed properties before their transfer or conveyance are much higher for FHA than for Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, according to a recent Government Accountability Office report. The report, which focuses on the growing number of vacant properties and the costs and challenges of maintaining them, found that FHAs pre-conveyance reimbursements to servicers are higher than the government-sponsored enterprises pre-foreclosure reimbursements. In 2010, the FHA reimbursed servicers about $1,982 compared to the GSEs $235 per property for maintenance-related expenses prior to ...
The Department of Housing and Urban Development has proposed to create a new system that would facilitate the transfer and streamline the collection of records under the FHAs lender approval and recertification process. The new, fully automated records system, the Lender Electronic Assessment Portal, will assume full custody and control of lender records currently maintained by the HUD/FHA Lender Approval Files System of Records Notice (SORN), which is a manual and labor-intensive process. The current system contains records of principals or officers of financial institutions who are approved or seeking approval to ...
Only state-certified appraisers can conduct appraisals of properties securing an FHA-insured mortgage under a final rule adopted recently by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. At the same time, the new rule made clear that FHA would no longer allow state-licensed appraisers to perform FHA appraisals. The FHA has not been accepting applications by state-licensed appraisers since Oct. 1, 2008, following the enactment of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act. Previous HUD regulations required that an appraiser be state-licensed or state-certified in order to be placed on the departments official roster of appraisers. However, HERA mandated only ...
Ginnie Mae may have reported potentially inaccurate data to Congress about its exposures because estimates were not based on the best available data, according to a recent report by the Government Accountability Office. The agencys sensitivity analysis also ignored important data, which could affect the accuracy of its cash-flow forecasts, the report said. Although Ginnie Mae has revised its cash-flow forecast model, it has not implemented practices identified in Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board guidance and risk-budgeting guidance, the report noted. By ignoring such practices, Ginnie Maes model may not be ...
Total FHA endorsements declined 4.2 percent in October from the previous month and 29.7 percent from a year ago even as FHA refinances continued to slow, according to an Inside FHA Lending analysis of FHA data. A total of 88,060 mortgages were endorsed for FHA insurance in October, down from 91,963 loans in September. Of the October endorsements, 60,596 were purchase loans, down 9.0 percent from the previous month and 7.9 percent from the same reporting period last year. FHA refinancing increased 15.4 percent on a month-to-month basis but declined a whopping 57.9 percent from last year. Streamlined FHA refis were ... (Comes with one chart)
Bank of America and Wells Fargo continued their dominance of the FHA servicing market, accounting for 55.1 percent of the business as of Sept. 30. Of the 1,177,858 FHA-insured loans currently being serviced, 16.91 percent are in various stages of delinquency. Seriously delinquent loans 90 days or more behind on their mortgage payments comprised ... [includes one chart]
Non-agency participants maintain that the reinstatement of emergency high-cost loan limits for FHA loans but not Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac will not impede originations of non-agency jumbo mortgages. Meanwhile, some housing trade groups and congressmen representing high-cost districts continue to push for a reinstatement of the government-sponsored enterprises high-cost loan limits. In November, President Obama signed legislation that restored the maximum $729,750 loan limit for the highest-cost FHA markets ...
Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan this week told Congress that the FHA is considering a number of policy options, including further premium increases, to bolster the long-term health of the Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund. Testifying before the House Financial Services Committee, Donovan said he expects to address premium increases in HUDs FY 2013 budget proposal given the concerns raised by lawmakers regarding the impact of the reinstated maximum loan limits on the FHAs declining capital reserves. Having higher loan limits than Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will result in ...