In an effort to streamline its lending process, the FHA has scrapped the requirement of a 10-year protection plan for newly constructed single-family homes, according to guidelines released this week.
FHA lenders can now outsource verification of a borrower’s employment, income and other assets to third-party vendors. The new guidance, which came into effect on Feb. 15, applies to all FHA forward mortgages and Home Equity Conversion Mortgage loans.
FHA has tweaked its mortgage scorecard to address concerns surrounding loans with higher-risk characteristics such as cash-out refinances and high debt-to-income ratios.
Lenders will no longer be able to edit appraisals in FHA’s Electronic Appraisal Delivery portal. They will have to submit a corrected appraisal to update the field.
FHA and VA are calling on servicers to provide special relief to furloughed federal workers and contractors as the partial government shutdown neared a full month with no end in sight.
The partial government shutdown, now in its second week, has had limited impact on the FHA and VA lending programs but could be disastrous to federal rural housing programs if prolonged.
Democrats on the House Financial Services Committee urged the FHA to reverse its “unofficial” policy of denying Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals status recipients access to FHA loans.
Following the November release of FHA’s fiscal 2018 report on the health of the Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund and increases in FHA loan limits, analysts at The Urban Institute have identified four FHA trends to watch for in 2019.
The ability to extract more equity at a lower price appears to be driving the growth in FHA cash-out volume, according to an Urban Institute analysis of FHA’s FY 2018 report on the financial condition of the Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund.
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