Funding for a federal program providing guarantees to mortgage loans to Native Americans and other indigenous peoples has been spared from mandatory budget cuts under a temporary budget measure signed into law by President Obama last month. The Department of Housing and Urban Development has resumed accepting new loan applications under the Section 184 Indian Home Loan Guarantee Program. The mortgage product is for American Indian and Alaska Native families, Alaskan tribal members and tribally designated housing entities. Congress established the program in 1992 to ...

Ginnie Mae issuance fell in the first quarter of 2013 but was easily offset by significant gains from a year ago, according to Inside FHA Lending’s analysis of FHA data. Mortgage-backed securities production at the government facility dropped 5.1 percent to $104.1 billion in the first quarter but increased 28.6 percent year-over-year , which was more than enough for an offset. The securities were backed mostly by FHA and VA loans with a combined total of $99.33 billion. Federally guaranteed rural housing loans totaling $4.84 billion were also in the mix. Wells Fargo and Chase Home Finance led the Ginnie Mae market with a combined ... [1 chart]

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac securitization volume reached its highest level in nearly four years during the first three months of 2013, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance market analysis and lender ranking. Ongoing strength in refinance activity was the key. The two government-sponsored enterprises securitized a total of $296.4 billion of refinance loans during the first quarter, accounting for a hefty 83.3 percent of their total business. It was the biggest wave of refi loans to hit the GSE market since the second quarter of 2009, when a whopping $373.7 billion of refinances were securitized by Fannie and Freddie – before the Home Affordable Refinance Program reached its stride. While GSE refi business was...[Includes three data charts]

The Federal Housing Finance Agency is warming up plans to launch a sales blitz for the successful but sun-setting Home Affordable Refinance Program. Last week, while testifying before the House Financial Services Committee, FHFA Acting Director Edward DeMarco said the agency will soon implement a nationwide marketing campaign for HARP “to let borrowers know this is a legitimate program. We want to see more borrowers refinance.”

First Guaranty Mortgage Corp., a provider of special niche products, has announced plans to push more mainstream FHA/VA and Fannie Mae products through its wholesale broker channel. The plan is to add the popular Home Affordable Refinance Program, loans backed by the Rural Housing Service, and the FHA and VA streamline refinancing programs to the current wholesale menu of manufactured home loans and 203(k) home rehabilitation and repair loans. “We’d like our wholesale side to be better-rounded and so we’re ...

The use of premium pricing to induce more borrowers to opt for FHA streamline refinancing may be a boon for FHA borrowers but clearly a bane for investors in Ginnie Mae mortgage-backed securities, according to Barclays Research analysts. There are indications that more FHA lenders are resorting to premium pricing, in which borrowers pay a higher mortgage rate in return for lowering the cost of obtaining the loan. Its use seems to be increasing, which also raises the risk of Ginnie Mae prepayments, said ...

Two differing notions have emerged during a recent hearing in the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Housing and Insurance regarding the rapidly changing relationship between private mortgage insurance and the FHA single-family mortgage insurance program. One view is that FHA’s existing policies either ignore or violate basic regulatory principles and continue to crowd out private capital. Compared to state-regulated private MIs, the FHA has far less stringent standards and enforcement from a regulatory perspective has been disappointing. Proponents of this view say that ...

The Internal Revenue Service is preparing to launch an industry-wide review of housing counseling agencies, including those approved by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, as well as other tax-exempt entities that provide mortgage foreclosure assistance, compliance experts warned. In fact, the IRS has started looking at providers that have applied for tax-exempt status in recent months and has denied three organizations in February 2013 alone, according to attorneys with the Washington, DC, law firm Venable. Housing counseling agencies can use the issues raised in the “private letter” rulings as a ...

A federal employee union and the Department of Housing and Urban Development have agreed to implement a seven-day employee furlough because of a severe mandatory reduction in HUD’s budget in FY 2013. The seven furlough days, which also will affect FHA operations, will apply to HUD’s entire 9,100-person work force and will be spread out to one for each pay period beginning May 24. HUD initially proposed a 13-day furlough plan, which was to start May 10, but agreed to reduce it to seven days and to move the start date to May 24. Under an agreement between HUD and the American Federation of Government Employees Council 222, furlough days will occur on ...

Legislation that would provide the FHA with tools to strengthen its finances and ensure its long-term solvency has been reintroduced in the House of Representatives. It is uncertain whether Republican leaders, given their concerns, would be willing to take up the Democrat-sponsored bill. The bill, the FHA Emergency Fiscal Solvency Act, would give the FHA more flexibility to take action against lenders that show excessive early default and claims rates. It would also authorize the FHA to require a mortgagee to indemnify the agency for improperly written loans. The bill’s co-sponsors, Rep. Maxine Waters, D-CA, and Rep. Michael Capuano, D-MA, hope for ...