Ginnie guaranteed $49.44 billion of MBS in August, a 3.0% decline from July. Refinance volume declined 13.6% during the period, while purchase-mortgage volume held steady at 0.2%.

Refinance volume included in Ginnie Mae mortgage-backed securities slipped for the fourth consecutive month in August as interest rates climbed higher. (Includes two data tables.)

FHA plans to begin accepting loans underwritten using the new scoring model on a wide scale, rather than via a limited rollout.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development quickly withdrew a cost-benefit document, which outlined reorganization plans.

Industry groups urged FHA to flesh out and update the disclosures for VA mortgages that will be added to FHA mortgage applications as a result of Congress’ new housing law.

Many large FHA lenders were consistently more lenient or stringent in their acceptance of applications over an eight-year period studied in a pair of new working papers.

Fannie Mae will update its automated underwriting system so it can accept lender-provided interest rates for FHA ARMs.

If borrowers of VA loans only paid refinance fees in cash or by rolling the fees into the interest rate, it would more accurately reflect the annual percentage rate of the new mortgage, thus reducing refis where the benefit is razor-thin, according to the Urban Institute.

FHA Connection to institute ID check; USDA Farm Service Agency modernizes loan delivery; FHA application share increases.

FHA plans to begin accepting VantageScore 4.0 and FICO 10T credit scoring models on Jan. 1.