It’s far too early for lawmakers to entertain another expansion of the Home Affordable Refinance Program given that the most recent tweak to the program, HARP 2.0, only just recently became fully active, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency. The FHFA has maintained that HARP 2.0 remains a work in progress given the revamped program’s graduated rollout of changes, but this week the Finance Agency said a proposed bill in the Senate to create HARP 3.0 would only get in the way. “The initial results on the enhanced HARP program show that it is working, and new legislation at this time would slow down that progress,” said FHFA Senior Associate Director for Housing and Regulatory Policy Meg Burns.

Bucking an overall slowdown in new mortgage originations during the first quarter of 2012, government-insured lending surged to its highest level since the end of 2010, according to a new ranking and analysis by Inside Mortgage Finance. A total of $83.0 billion of loans insured by the FHA, Veterans Administration and Rural Housing Service were originated during the first three months of the year, up 15.3 percent from the fourth quarter of 2011. That was in marked contrast to the 8.2 percent drop in conventional conforming originations and an overall 3.8 percent decline in total mortgage production during...

Although at least one Senate Republican shows interest in a plan to expand the Home Affordable Refinance Program, the outlook for Congressional action remains doubtful and House Democrats are pushing the Federal Housing Finance Agency to make further HARP changes administratively. During a Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee hearing last week on legislation to expand HARP, Sen. Bob Corker, R-TN, said he was open to the proposal. “I hope that we’ll have a real mark-up on this bill,” he said. Senate Democrats Robert Menendez (NJ) and Barbara Boxer (CA) have introduced legislation...

The Department of Housing and Urban Development has expressed concern over the “lack of alignment” between FHA’s credit underwriting standards and credit overlays – a probable explanation for the apparent increase in FHA lending to non-traditional FHA borrowers. Responding to an Inside FHA Lending inquiry, FHA Deputy Assistant Secretary Charles Coulter said HUD will look at lenders’ compare ratio as a potential driver for overlays and will work to improve clarity in FHA manual underwriting. In recent remarks at the Mortgage Bankers Association’s National Secondary Market Conference in New York, Coulter said ...

Real estate industry groups are urging the FHA to align a forthcoming proposed rule for private transfer fees with a final rule recently adopted by the Federal Housing Finance Agency. In a joint letter to Acting FHA Commissioner Carol Galante, the National Association of Realtors and the Institute of Real Estate Management expressed support for the FHFA rule on transfer-fee covenants and asked that a mortgagee’s compliance with the FHFA rule be deemed as compliance with the FHA’s own rule regarding such covenants. The two groups urged the FHA to ...

FHA-approved reverse mortgage lenders conducting any new financial assessments of elderly borrowers should not be overly restrictive to ensure that the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage program remains a viable option for cash-poor seniors, according to the National Council on Aging. The NCA, an advocacy group for elderly Americans, noted that lender assessments of borrowers’ ability to repay a HECM loan may be tough seniors with modest income who could not qualify for a conventional home loan would be left with fewer alternatives to tap home equity. The FHA does not have specific income requirements for HECM borrowers. However, policymakers are ...

The Department of Housing and Urban Development has paid a total of $962,600 in incentive payments to servicers that used special forbearance for unemployed homeowners since changes to FHA forbearance rules were announced in July last year. The payments covered 6,116 claims filed with HUD under the FHA’s revised special forbearance program from July 2011 through March 2012. The program helps unemployed FHA borrowers stay in their homes while seeking reemployment. Changes to the program require servicers to extend the forbearance period for qualified FHA borrowers from the minimum four months to 12 months. In addition, upfront hurdles were ...

Incentive payments to FHA servicers based on a compliance score will soon replace the current tier ranking-based inducements used by the Department of Housing and Urban Development to reward above par servicer performance. In an update to its servicer evaluation process, HUD said implementation of the National Servicing Center’s Servicer Performance Scorecard (SPS) is underway and the transition from Tier Ranking System (TRS) incentive payment to an SPS payment scheme will be announced in a mortgagee letter as soon as the implementation is completed. In the future, the SPS may be used as ...

The Department of Housing and Urban Development is evaluating potential changes to its tough condominium requirements, some of which could be announced soon. A department spokesperson declined to comment on specific requirements that may be included in new guidelines but said the agency is working to respond to industry concerns. Industry observers say the rules, which HUD put in place in 2009, have left many condominium units ineligible for FHA-insured financing. Condominium association boards have been ...

The FHA saw its total originations drop 5.4 percent in the first three months of 2012 compared to the same period last year but posted a modest gain on a quarterly basis, according to Inside FHA Lending’s analysis of FHA data. Excluding Home Equity Conversion Mortgage loans, FHA originations in the first quarter totaled $50.0 billion, of which 79.0 percent were originated in-house. Sponsored third-party originators accounted for the remaining 21.0 percent, or approximately $10.5 billion, data showed. Production jumped 12.0 percent in the first quarter of 2012 from $44.6 billion in the fourth quarter of 2011. The top 50 FHA lenders accounted for ... [With 1 chart]