Mortgage brokers and their wholesale funders gained some share in the FHA/VA market during the first quarter of 2018, according to a new Inside FHA/VA Lending analysis. Survey data collected by Inside Mortgage Finance show that all three production channels took big hits in FHA/VA volume in early 2018. The $49.11 billion in government-insured lending reported by participating lenders was down 20.7 percent from the previous quarter and 10.8 percent below the volume the group generated in the first three months of 2017. Correspondent production remained the biggest source of FHA/VA loans, accounting for 53.5 percent of the survey sample in the first quarter. But production through this channel was down 22.2 percent from the previous three-month period, a slightly larger decline than seen overall. Four of the top five lenders in the group have strong correspondent platforms, especially ... [Chart]

Treasury Official Sees Major Impact from Single Security. A key Treasury Department official suggested that issuers of non-agency MBS may someday participate in the common securitization platform being developed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Craig Phillips, counselor to the Treasury, said the industry has made a lot of progress toward the launch of the single security that is scheduled for June 2019. “Industry preparedness is about an eight or nine on a scale of 10,” he said during remarks at this week's secondary market conference sponsored by the Mortgage Bankers Association in New York. Phillips characterized the...

New FHA endorsements and VA home loan guaranty volume were both down significantly in the first quarter, but the two programs followed different paths to mostly similar results. A new Inside FHA/VA Lending ranking and analysis shows that endorsements of FHA forward mortgages slipped 10.5 percent from the fourth quarter to $48.96 billion. That was the lowest quarterly output for the program since early 2015, when just $39.48 billion of FHA forward loans were originated. In the VA program, new loan guarantees fell 11.1 percent from the fourth quarter to $39.06 billion. That was the lowest three-month total since the first lap in 2016, with $37.09 billion produced. Most of the decline in FHA business was in purchase-mortgage lending, which fell 13.5 percent from the fourth quarter. While purchase loans still accounted for a hefty 71.1 percent of FHA forward endorsements during the ... [Charts]

A recent announcement by the Department of Housing and Urban Development to seek public comment on its 2013 disparate-impact rule is an opportunity for both HUD and the industry to clarify the liability issues it raises, said compliance experts. On May 10, HUD announced it would formally seek public input on whether the disparate-impact regulation is in tune with the Supreme Court of the United States’ 2015 decision in Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs v. Inclusive Communities Project, Inc. The HUD rule affirmed the use of disparate impact to establish liability for violations of the Fair Housing Act. It lays out a three-step approach to determining FHAct liability. The first step requires the plaintiff to demonstrate that a practice or a policy has a discriminatory effect on a protected class of persons. According to the rule, liability may be established even if the ...

President Trump this week announced Michael Bright as his choice to lead Ginnie Mae, an agency under the Department of Housing and Urban Development, even as Senate Democrats continued to delay vote on his nominee for FHA commissioner. Bright is currently Ginnie Mae’s executive vice president and chief operating officer, though he has been serving as acting president since Theodore Tozer stepped down on Jan. 20, 2017. Tozer served as Ginnie president under the Obama administration for nearly seven years. Bright joined Ginnie on July 11, 2017. Previously, he served as director for financial markets at the Milken Institute and as senior vice president of BlackRock/PennyMac. During his time with Milken, Bright co-authored a paper with Ed DeMarco, former acting director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency and currently president of the Financial Services Roundtable, which proposed to ...

FHA extended foreclosure timelines for properties with a Home Equity Conversion Mortgage loan in hurricane-stricken areas in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The 90-day extension aims to prevent further losses to the Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund. The foreclosure timelines were extended through Aug. 16, 2018, for HECM-backed properties located in areas ravaged by Hurricane Maria. Specifically, the extension applies to 78 affected municipalities in Puerto Rico, as well as HECM-backed properties on the islands of St. Croix, St. John and St. Thomas. In a report to Congress last year, Ginnie Mae reported that, as of Sept. 30, 2017, its aggregate hurricane exposure to its mortgage-backed securities portfolio was approximately $166.9 billion from Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria. Ginnie’s exposure specific to Hurricane Maria totaled $13.7 billion, which is 1.24 percent of all ...

With overall production levels falling, there was a modest increase in several risk vectors of FHA and VA loans pooled in Ginnie Mae mortgage-backed securities during the first quarter of 2018.A new Inside FHA/VA Lending analysis shows the average credit score for FHA loans in Ginnie MBS issued during the first quarter was 671.1, the lowest level since Ginnie began reporting loan-level data on its securities. That was down from 673.2 in the fourth quarter and 679.2 a year ago. Part of the slide in FHA credit scores likely reflects the increased share of purchase mortgages, which typically have lower scores than refinance loans. The same thing happened in the VA market, where average credit scores fell 1.1 points to 707.8 in the first quarter. A year ago, the average VA score was 710.2. Debt-to-income ratios also drifted higher, suggesting more risk of default. Among FHA loans, the average DTI rose to ... [Charts]

Acting FHA Commissioner Dana Wade voiced concern over increasing shares of FHA-insured loans with high debt-to-income ratios, cash-out refinances and purchase loans with downpayment assistance. Testifying recently before the House Appropriations Committee on the agency’s FY 2019 budget, Wade warned that such disturbing trends suggest that FHA’s exposure to loss could rise and put the Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund and taxpayers at risk. Wade said FHA’s financial health and the impact of the volatile reverse mortgage portfolio are a continuing concerns. Last year, the fund’s economic net worth declined by $1.9 billion and the capital reserve ratio fell to 2.09 percent from 2.35 percent the previous year due to losses associated with Home Equity Conversion Mortgage loans. Wade noted an increase in the proportion of borrowers with DTI ratios in excess of 50 percent. In February, the ...

An approved issuer suspended last month due to alleged VA loan churning activities is back in Ginnie Mae’s multi-issuer mortgage-backed securities program. Nations Lending, ranked 97th in Inside FHA/VA Lending’s top 100 VA lenders, was reinstated after reaching a confidential agreement with Ginnie Mae, according to a source familiar with the case. The Ohio-based lender has been “fully reinstated and [again] able to use all of Ginnie Mae’s programs that are available for lenders in good faith,” said the source, who asked not to be identified. The source declined to provide details of the agreement, maintaining Nations has been very transparent and was “ahead of the curve” in terms of dealing with the churning problem. “Nations began addressing the issue even before Ginnie took action,” he said. Ginnie neither confirmed nor commented on the report. “The evidence will show what is happening in the ...

Many low-income and minority borrowers are forced into FHA loans by risk-based pricing and overlays in the conventional market, only to be stymied by higher FHA premiums and non-cancellable mortgage insurance premiums, according to a new study from the Center for Responsible Lending. The study, “Repairing a Two-Tiered System: The Crucial but Complex Role of FHA,” examines FHA’s pre- and post-crisis lending to white and minority borrowers. It also evaluates the impact of risk-based and FHA pricing as well as the impact of False Claims Act enforcement, which have limited the FHA program’s effectiveness in meeting homeownership goals, said authors Peter Smith, CRL senior researcher, and Melissa Stegman, senior policy counsel. The authors used Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data from 2004 through 2016, focusing solely on single-family purchase mortgages made to ...