The FHA has extended a temporary waiver of its regulation that prohibits property flipping in the single-family mortgage insurance program to encourage more investors to participate in agency efforts to ease its burgeoning inventory of real estate-owned properties. First issued in January 2010, the regulatory waiver is now effective through Dec. 31, 2014, after two previous adjustments since issuance. Prior to the waiver, a mortgage was not eligible for FHA insurance if the purchaser sold the property within 90 days of its acquisition and is ...

Thanks to the Federal Reserve’s aggressive support for the agency mortgage market and continuing strength in the refinance program for underwater Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac borrowers, mortgage refi activity has accounted for 73.1 percent of 2012’s surging production volume. But home-purchase lending started to regain some market share during the third quarter of 2012, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance ranking and analysis. An estimated $143 billion of home-purchase mortgages were originated during the third quarter, up 10.9 percent from the previous three-month period. By comparison, refinance production was up just 2.8 percent from the second quarter. The purchase-mortgage sector still has...[Includes three data charts]

The mortgage finance industry is getting antsy because the much-anticipated ability-to-repay final rule still has yet to be released by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, even though it was widely expected to come out after the election, perhaps by Thanksgiving. The bureau does not have a specific release date yet, but officials still expect it to happen before the statutory deadline of Jan. 21, 2013. Lenders are pretty amped up...

Commercial banks and savings institutions continued to increase their MBS holdings during the third quarter, despite more competition for the still-shrinking asset class. A new Inside MBS & ABS analysis of bank call report data shows that banks and thrifts held a record $1.617 trillion of residential MBS as of the end of the third quarter, up 0.5 percent from the previous quarter. All of the growth came from commercial banks, as thrift MBS holdings continued to decline, dropping 1.3 percent to $175.6 billion. Banks managed to increase...[Includes two data charts]

The American Securitization Forum has published an implementation guide to the due diligence requirements for securitization positions under the market risk rule issued by the federal bank regulators in August, as well as guidance the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency put out this past June. One of the primary purposes behind the rule and the guidance was to lessen industry dependence on credit ratings and to promote instead greater reliance upon proper due diligence. “With the adoption of the final rules, market participants have been working...

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have reduced their dependency on U.S. government support, but there may be restructuring issues within the budget talks to resolve the looming “fiscal cliff,” according to Fitch Ratings. Fitch this week affirmed its “AAA” rating for both Fannie and Freddie even as its outlook for the two GSEs remains “negative.” However, the rating agency warned that its outlook for Fannie and Freddie depends upon the economy and the ability of political leaders to come to an accord on taxes and government spending before year’s end.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency has announced this week that the maximum conforming loan limits for mortgages acquired by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in 2013 will remain at existing levels. In most of the country, the loan limit – established under the terms of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 – are calculated each year. HERA sets loan limits as a function of median home values in local areas.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency’s proposal to levy extra guaranty fee charges on GSE mortgages originated in five slow-foreclosure states attracted nearly universal calls to curtail or even to outright scrap the measure from industry participants and from lawmakers. If implemented as proposed, the FHFA would target Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, New Jersey and New York for an additional, one-shot g-fee of between 15 and 30 basis points in 2013.

The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled earlier this month that a 2010 Federal Housing Finance Agency directive advising Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac against purchasing mortgages laden with certain first-priority lien obligations under the Property Assessed Clean Energy program is not tantamount to a rulemaking that can be challenged in court. The ruling rejected a challenge by Leon County, FL, to uphold its PACE program. The county claimed the FHFA had engaged in rulemaking without the required notice and comment period in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act.The circuit court’s opinion by Judge Rosemary Barkett found the Finance Agency’s action was consistent with its congressionally defined role as conservator under the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008.