Mortgagee registration for transitioning to the FHA’s Electronic Appraisal Delivery (EAD) portal will begin next month. The EAD portal is a web-based system that will enable mortgagees or their designated service providers to transmit appraisal data and reports to FHA prior to endorsement. By using this portal, mortgagees will find it easier to do business with the FHA and reduce post-endorsement corrections of appraisal data. Use of the EAD portal is free. In order to migrate to the portal before its use becomes mandatory on June 27, 2016, mortgagees must register for one of the available migration phases that the FHA will establish. These phases include the following: Start every 30 days, and be approximately 60 days in duration; Allow mortgagees to migrate to the portal any time at their own pace; Require a timeline for mortgagees that will be submitting appraisal directly to ...

The Federal Home Loan Bank’s Mortgage Partnership Finance (MPF) Program has removed certain barriers to streamline refinancing of government-backed mortgages. Effective on July 6, 2015, the MPF no longer requires minimum FICO score, maximum loan-to-value ratios or appraisals for FHA streamlined refis, VA Interest Rate Reduction Refinance loans and rural housing home loans with a U.S. Department of Agriculture guarantee. The MPF program’s participating financial institutions (PFIs) may now originate and underwrite streamline refis based solely on the requirements of the FHA, VA or the USDA’s Rural Housing Service. The program currently requires borrower and co-borrower income for government loan streamline refis for the purpose of loan presentment. “Presentment” refers to the right to require a lender to demand payment of amounts ...

The mortgage market cranked up new originations significantly during the second quarter of 2015, lifting production to its highest level in nearly two years, according to a new analysis and ranking by Inside Mortgage Finance. Lenders produced an estimated $445 billion of first-lien single-family mortgages during the second quarter, an increase of 23.6 percent over the first three months of 2015. It marked the strongest origination volume since the second quarter of 2013, when the industry was in the middle of a refinance boom that generated over $2 trillion in new production over a 12-month period. The party this time around doesn’t look...[Includes two data tables]

Originations of purchase mortgages were strong in the second quarter of 2015 and through the start of summer, according to industry participants. In recent months, demand for home purchases has been driven by current homeowners and first-time homebuyers, two groups that are particularly reliant on mortgage financing. “The purchase market has been stronger than people expected in the second quarter,” said Paul Miller, a managing director at FBR Capital Markets. Kevin Hester, chief lending officer at Home BancShares, said...

Ginnie Mae issuance of government-insured mortgage-backed securities rose a whopping 47.3 percent in the second quarter of 2015 from the previous quarter, powered by a robust FHA refinancing volume, according to an Inside FHA/VA Lending analysis of agency data. Government-backed Ginnie MBS production in the second quarter totaled $117.5 billion, up from $79.8 billion in the prior quarter. Volume year-to-date also increased by 57.7 percent from the first six months of last year. From May to June, government-backed securitization increased a modest 2.9 percent. FHA loans comprised 62.6 percent of Ginnie MBS issuance in the second quarter while VA accounted for 33.7 percent. Securitized loans with a Rural Housing Service guaranty represented 3.6 percent of total Ginnie MBS issuance during the period. FHA loan securitization was robust in the second quarter, as volume ... [ Charts ]

Rising home values could present a new opportunity for FHA borrowers to refinance into a conventional loan and enable those borrowers who choose to stay with FHA financing to take advantage of FHA’s reduced annual mortgage insurance premium, according to lenders. With house prices on the rise, FHA borrowers are seeing a build-up in equity. This might be a good time for them to remove that monthly payment and get out of their FHA loan, said Faramaz Moeen-Ziai, vice president of national sales and production at Commerce Home Mortgage in Huntington, CA. With an FHA-insured loan, coverage is for the life of the loan while private mortgage insurance on a conventional is cancellable when paid down to 79 percent of the loan amount. This might be especially beneficial to homeowners living in homes valued far less than what they owe on the property, or to holders of ...

Industry experts are sharply divided on whether the FHA’s financial condition is actually getting better or worse. Potomac Partners, a business consultancy group, is optimistic that the FHA’s Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund has finally turned a corner with great signs of improvement in the first quarter of 2015. Changes and adjustments made by the Department of Housing and Urban Development since last year have placed the MMI Fund on a positive trajectory to reach its required 2.0 percent capital ratio in 2016. Last year, the fund’s capital ratio improved from a negative 0.11 percent to a positive 0.41 percent and its economic value appears to be improving. Potomac Partners’ analysis looked at FHA risk, loan performance, delinquency rates, debt-to-income ratios, loan-to-value ratios, originations and claims, loss rates as well the effect of the ...

Overview Conference Call for Mortgagees, Servicers and Other Interested Parties. The FHA will host an industry briefing session on July 16, 2015, 2 p.m.-3 p.m., to provide an overview of the Servicing and Loss Mitigation Section of the Single-Family Policy Handbook, as outlined in the Highlights of Changes and Clarifications document. The conference call’s dial-in number is (800) 700-7784. The participant access code is 364218. USDA Performs System Maintenance. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s mortgage guaranty system will not be functioning at full capacity from July 10-13 due to routine maintenance. Maintenance work is scheduled to begin at 2 p.m., July 10, CDT. The Guaranteed Underwriting System will be operating at a reduced level. Lenders will not be able to make final submissions or upload documents for the entire work period. In addition, the ...

Residential MBS production continued to gain speed in the second quarter of 2015 while non-mortgage securitization remained strong, according to a new Inside MBS & ABS analysis. A total of $419.42 billion of single-family MBS and non-mortgage ABS were issued during the second quarter, an increase of 21.2 percent from the first three months of the year. It was the strongest new issuance total since the third quarter of 2013 and marked the fifth straight quarterly increase since the market hit a cyclical low at the beginning of last year. Most of the gain came from the agency MBS sector, which totaled $352.73 billion in new issuance, a gain of 29.7 percent from the first quarter. All three agencies posted hefty gains, with the biggest coming at Ginnie Mae, where new issuance jumped 46.7 percent to hit $120.36 billion. A lot of Ginnie’s growth is coming from an unusual surge of refinance activity, which accounted for ... [ charts]

FHA jumbo loan production rose nearly 36.9 percent in the first quarter, ending the period with $3.8 billion in new volume, according to an Inside FHA/VA Lending analysis of agency data. Volume includes all FHA loans exceeding $417,000. It was also up significantly, 59.6 percent, from the same period a year ago. Purchase loans accounted for 52.8 percent of FHA jumbos originated during the first three months of 2015, and 93 percent were fixed-rate purchase and refinance loans. The top five FHA jumbo lenders – Quicken Loans, Wells Fargo Bank, Prospect Mortgage, Pinnacle Capital Mortgage Corp., and LoanDepot – reported increases on a quarter-to-quarter basis. Together, the elite group accounted for 13.0 percent of the FHA jumbo market. The largest quarter-to-quarter increases were mostly mid-level FHA jumbo lenders. For example, 12th-ranked Freedom Mortgage, a top player in the ... [ 1 chart ]