The average daily trading volume in agency MBS totaled $212.6 billion in June, a slight decline from the month prior, according to the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association. Still, that’s a far cry better than the low established back in December of 2015 when the reading came in at $149.2 billion. June’s performance came...

The outlook for mortgage and housing activity in 2016 is expected to stay positive, but prime jumbo issuance won’t necessarily benefit from those fundamentals, according to S&P Global Ratings. Overall, the positive housing market is not translating into an increase in issuance or securitization. In fact, S&P analysts on a webinar this week said that non-agency securitization has been relatively flat over the past few years. Prime jumbo issuance continues to experience a dry spell that will most likely continue into the second half of 2016, they said. “If you look at the loans being originated, they are being held...

A federal jury in late June ruled in favor of former officials from Thornburg Mortgage in a lawsuit brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission in 2012. The charges centered on disclosure and accounting issues the jumbo lender faced in early 2008. The trial involved 10 counts against Larry Goldstone and Clay Simmons, the former CEO and chief financial officer of Thornburg, respectively. The jury ruled in favor of the former Thornburg officials on six counts and was ...

We don’t know who will lead the new administration, though for Ginnie’s sake, it’s likely that both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton won’t mess with the agency or its charter. Right?

House Republicans this week accused the Department of Housing and Urban Development of giving preferential treatment to political favorites in changes to FHA distressed asset sales. House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling, R-TX, denounced changes HUD Secretary Julian Castro made to the Distressed Asset Sale Program (DASP), saying the moves help liberal special interests at the expense of private investors. Hensarling said the changes would create “preferential bidding” for certain buyers and restrict investor options. HUD expanded DASP in 2012 as a conduit for selling nonperforming FHA loans to investors with the proviso they must first help borrowers save their homes from foreclosure and foreclose only if all loan-modification options have been exhausted. Distressed note sales also helped stabilize FHA’s Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund and have contributed more than ...

The U.S. Senate this week passed legislation that includes reforms to current FHA restrictions on condominium financing, among other provisions. H.R. 3700, the Housing Opportunity Through Modernization Act of 2016, was approved without amendment by unanimous consent. The bill passed in the House of Representatives by a vote of 427-0 in February. The bill addresses problems facing buyers and sellers of condominiums. Specifically, the bill modifies the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s rental assistance and public housing programs, FHA’s requirements for condo mortgage insurance and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s single-family housing guaranteed loan program. Among other things, the bill requires the FHA to make recertifications “substantially less burdensome,” while lowering the ownership-occupancy requirement from 50 percent to 35 percent. The current ...

The Department of Veterans Affairs has clarified policies that have raised questions among VA lenders but were not addressed during the agency’s annual lender conference in San Diego, CA, back in May. ? What is the VA’s policy regarding a non-purchasing spouse’s (NPS) credit? VA: The NPS’s liabilities need to be considered but not its credit history. ? What is VA’s policy regarding a loss that an NPS reports on a joint tax return? If a joint tax return shows a business loss, then that loss will have to be deducted from the veteran’s income in both community and non-community property states. What is reported to the Internal Revenue Service must be used when applying for a federally guaranteed loan In a situation where a couple has been faced with business losses, the veteran and his or her spouse may want to consider both being on the loan in order to potentially qualify. ? The VA Pamphlet states: “Account balances reduced to ...

The Department of Veterans Affairs has spelled out steps for disputing and resolving audit findings with the agency. The VA Home Loan Guaranty program has a policy-resolution protocol in place to increase both consistency among the VA regional loan centers (RLC) and responsiveness to lender inquiries. In seeking to resolve an audit dispute with an RLC, the lender should first consult the VA Lender’s Handbook before contacting the VA. Lenders also are encouraged to check with colleagues who might be familiar with issues underlying the dispute. The lender should contact the RLC with jurisdiction for an official response to case-specific questions. When disputing an audit finding or a deficiency letter, the lender should contact the loan specialist who conducted the audit. If, after communicating with the loan specialist, the dispute remains unresolved, the lender should take its concern to ...

CA Legislature Poised to Pass Protections for Widowed Homeowners. The California legislature is a step away from enacting legislation that would extend existing foreclosure protections in the state Homeowners Bill of Rights (HBOR) to widows, widowers and other heirs of deceased homeowners. The legislature passed the HBOR in 2012 to provide due process protections to homeowners and establish rules and procedures for communication between servicers and borrowers regarding options to avoid foreclosure. However, the bill’s protections did not extend to surviving spouses and successors-in-interest who may wish to continue paying the mortgage loan but could not assume the loan or afford the payment with the loss of the deceased homeowner’s income. Surviving family members may then seek a loan assumption or modification, only to be refused by the servicer because their names are not on the ...

Critics accused Castro of politicking at the expense of private investors. In the past, Castro has been mentioned as a possible vice presidential candidate for Hillary Clinton.