In the third quarter of 2013, the level of home-mortgage debt outstanding grew for the first time since early 2008 as the housing industry continued to climb out of the crater. The Federal Reserve this week announced there was $9.864 trillion of single-family mortgages outstanding at the end of September, a tiny 0.1 percent increase from the previous quarter. But after four and half years of decline, the gain seemed monumental. The central bank noted that all the increase was in first mortgages, while the supply of home-equity loans outstanding continued to shrink. Servicing attached to Ginnie Mae, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac programs continued...[Includes one data chart]

“We are expecting to see people trying to inflate their income or hiding and downplaying their monthly obligations,” said Interthinx's Ann Fulmer.

Senior lawmakers in the Senate said they remain “bullish” on moving legislation to the floor sooner rather than later in 2014.

Want to sell a large chunk of MSRs? If it's Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac product you'll have to run the deal past the FHFA.

Officials close to the matter said the MI policy briefing was cancelled due to Senate approval of a new permanent director to the agency, Mel Watt, a former North Carolina Congressman.

In certain ways, HUD’s "qualified mortgage" definition is less restrictive than the CFPB edict, including setting no limit on a borrower’s debt-to-income ratio.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau may formally address the treatment of affiliate fees in the points-and-fees calculation for qualified mortgages under the agency’s ability-to-repay rule, which takes effect in just a few weeks. Until such a decision is made, industry representatives have put together some guidance on how to exclude such fees from that 3 percent cap. “There has been significant industry confusion concerning the extent to which affiliate fees are included in the points-and-fees calculation, particularly when only a portion of a fee is retained by an affiliate,” the Mortgage Bankers Association said early this week. The trade group has put together a document outlining its understanding of the CFPB’s definitive guidance, based on discussions with bureau staff, on the treatment of affiliate fees in both the qualified mortgage and the Home Ownership and Equity Protection Act points-and-fees calculations. “Please keep in mind...

Recent progress reports on the $25 billion national servicing settlement and the Home Affordable Modification Program suggest that servicers are complying with the vast majority of the programs’ requirements. However, regulators continue to push for better performance. The five banks participating in the national servicing settlement complied with the settlement’s 29 metrics as of the end of the second quarter of 2013, according to a report released last week by the settlement’s monitor. JPMorgan Chase was...

The Department of Housing and Urban Development this week issued a final rule implementing a qualified-mortgage standard for FHA loans that is essentially unchanged from the agency’s first proposal issued in late September. HUD determined that it had to tweak the calculation of points and fees that is in the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s QM rule so that a large number – about 19 percent – of FHA forward mortgages will be classified as QMs. The final HUD rule establishes two categories of FHA qualified mortgages: safe-harbor QMs and rebuttable-presumption QMs. FHA forward mortgages will be considered...

The appraisal requirements required by the Dodd-Frank Act apply to higher-priced mortgages that don’t meet qualified mortgage requirements.