The Department of Housing and Urban Development this month expects to issue a final rule that would eliminate the process of requesting alternative FHA maximum loan limits due to improved access to, and availability of, home sales data. With the availability of comprehensive national databases of home sales transactions and continuing data-collection efforts, the regulations governing requests for alternative maximum mortgage limits have become outdated and unnecessary, the agency said.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development is seeking comment on a policy change that would reduce the FHA’s credit-score threshold from 620 to 580 to allow more manually underwritten borrowers to use compensating factors that would help them qualify for an FHA-insured mortgage loan. The change would strengthen manual underwriting and reduce FHA’s underwriting losses, resulting in more revenue per loan for FHA, HUD said. “The FHA can control costs through risk management practices,” the agency explained in a notice of rulemaking. “The lower costs are a gain to FHA.”

Recent announcements of revised loan-level price adjustments for the government-sponsored enterprises and risk-based pricing are fueling fears of FHA resurgence in the market. Consistent with the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s stated intent to raise the GSE guaranty fees by about 11 basis points, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac released revised loan-level price adjustments (LLPAs) on Dec. 16. The upfront fee hike takes mortgage rates for affected borrowers close to FHA pricing levels, according to industry analysts.

State attorneys general and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau reached a long-pending settlement with Ocwen Financial in December. Regulators suggest that additional actions are planned, and they have focused on the largest servicers as well as servicers involved with large transfers. As part of the settlement, Ocwen must complete $2.0 billion in principal reduction for borrowers with negative equity and refund $125.0 million to the nearly 185,000 borrowers who went through improper foreclosures from ...

Just how important are Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to the revenue picture of the U.S. government? According to calculations from The Collingwood Group, a Washington-based consulting firm, GSE dividends in 2013 will be the fourth largest source of federal revenue.

The qualified mortgage requirements set to be implemented next week present jumbo lenders with opportunities as well as compliance challenges, according to industry participants. “We are particularly bullish about the jumbo mortgage business because we believe that multiple regulatory and competitive factors provide strong tailwinds to our business,” Greg Garrabrants, president and CEO of BofI Holdings, said during a recent investor presentation. He said the debt-to-income ratio requirements ...

The effort, known as Tier Ranking System II, was created to determine servicer compliance with delinquent servicing guidelines developed by HUD.

Chief among the focal points of discussion will be the bureau's new ability-to-repay/qualified mortgage rule, which establishes strong consumer protections that ensure qualified homebuyers have access to safe, affordable home loans they can pay back.

A few months ago, sources close to the BofA case, said the FHFA was hoping for a settlement in the range of $13 billion.

Freedom has big expansion plans for the new year. Company CEO and founder Stan Middleman recently told IMFnews Daily that he plans to hire between 200 and 500 residential loan officers in 2014.