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Inside FHA/VA Lending

December 16, 2011

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A Delicate Balancing Act for FHA in 2012

The FHA will continue to play a critical role in the nation’s housing markets in 2012 even as it tries to balance the need to extend credit while reducing its market share to open the way for private capital to return to the mortgage market, according to industry observers. That means walking a tightrope in trying to keep the Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund actuarially sound while trying to avoid piling on more fees and additional restrictions, which could hamper housing recovery, observers said. “We can’t have an economic recovery without a housing recovery,” said Brian Chappelle, a mortgage industry consultant. “The philosophical debate about the role of government in housing should be ... Read More

Senate GOP Seeks to Link Galante Confirmation to GSEs

Senate Republicans have threatened to block the confirmation of Carol Galante as head of the FHA until Senate Democrats come up with a plan to deal with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs this week voted 13 to 9 to send Galante’s nomination to the Senate floor amid Republican calls to reject the nomination. Some Republicans expressed concern over the health of the FHA Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund, citing a recent independent actuarial study that reported a precarious drop in the fund’s excess capital reserve for unexpected losses. Sen. Jim DeMint, R-SC, said he did not think ... Read More

New Loan Limits Have Little Effect on FHA Refis

The recent change in the FHA’s maximum loan limits would have relatively limited impact for current borrowers trying to refinance, according to analysts. FHA loans insured prior to Oct. 1, 2011, were already grandfathered in for streamlined refinancing regardless of loan size, said analysts with J.P. Morgan Securities. In addition, the analysts said they do not expect many conventional jumbo-to-FHA refinances in this market segment because the mortgage insurance premiums make FHA loans less attractive. Last month, President Obama signed an appropriations bill into law, reinstating the pre-Oct. 1 formula for calculating the “temporary” loan limits for high-cost areas, which is ... [With one chart] Read More

Pre-Conveyance Maintenance Costs Higher for FHA

Expenses for maintaining foreclosed properties before their transfer or conveyance are much higher for FHA than for Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, according to a recent Government Accountability Office report. The report, which focuses on the growing number of vacant properties and the costs and challenges of maintaining them, found that FHA’s pre-conveyance reimbursements to servicers are higher than the government-sponsored enterprises’ pre-foreclosure reimbursements. In 2010, the FHA reimbursed servicers about $1,982 compared to the GSEs’ $235 per property for maintenance-related expenses prior to ... Read More

Isakson Bill Expands MI Role in QRM Securitization

Private mortgage insurers would play a strategic role under a new Senate proposal for winding down Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and privatizing guarantees on high-quality mortgage securitizations. Introduced by Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-GA, the Mortgage Finance Act of 2011 would create a new regulatory framework for securitizing “qualified residential mortgages” and an alternative form of guarantee provided by a new Mortgage Finance Agency. Under Isakson’s bill, the two government-sponsored enterprises would be placed in a run-off mode by the Federal Housing Finance Agency 18 months from the date of enactment. They would be required to ... Read More

HUD Proposes New Record System for FHA Approvals

The Department of Housing and Urban Development has proposed to create a new system that would facilitate the transfer and streamline the collection of records under the FHA’s lender approval and recertification process. The new, fully automated records system, the Lender Electronic Assessment Portal, will assume full custody and control of lender records currently maintained by the HUD/FHA Lender Approval Files System of Records Notice (SORN), which is a manual and labor-intensive process. The current system contains records of principals or officers of financial institutions who are approved or seeking approval to ... Read More

Only State-Certified Appraisers Can Do FHA Appraisals

Only state-certified appraisers can conduct appraisals of properties securing an FHA-insured mortgage under a final rule adopted recently by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. At the same time, the new rule made clear that FHA would no longer allow state-licensed appraisers to perform FHA appraisals. The FHA has not been accepting applications by state-licensed appraisers since Oct. 1, 2008, following the enactment of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act. Previous HUD regulations required that an appraiser be state-licensed or state-certified in order to be placed on the department’s official roster of appraisers. However, HERA mandated only ... Read More

Reporting Flaws May Have Led to Exposure Inaccuracies

Ginnie Mae may have reported potentially inaccurate data to Congress about its exposures because estimates were not based on the best available data, according to a recent report by the Government Accountability Office. The agency’s sensitivity analysis also ignored important data, which could affect the accuracy of its cash-flow forecasts, the report said. Although Ginnie Mae has revised its cash-flow forecast model, it has not implemented practices identified in Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board guidance and risk-budgeting guidance, the report noted. By ignoring such practices, Ginnie Mae’s model may not be ... Read More

Ginnie Mae Revises SCRA Issuer Reimbursement Policy

Ginnie Mae recently announced changes to rules implementing provisions under the Servicemembers’ Civil Relief Act for reimbursing excess mortgage interest to Ginnie Mae issuers. Under the revised SCRA reimbursement policy, issuers will be reimbursed excess interest payments on SCRA mortgage loans based on two different dates for reservists and active members of the military, said Ginnie Mae officials during an issuer outreach webinar on Dec. 8. If the borrower is a reservist, the reimbursement will be based on the date of the receipt of the deployment letter and reimbursements for active members will be based on the deployment date. Under the SCRA, mortgage lenders are required to ... Read More

FHA Endorsements Continue to Decline, Refis Slow

Total FHA endorsements declined 4.2 percent in October from the previous month and 29.7 percent from a year ago even as FHA refinances continued to slow, according to an Inside FHA Lending analysis of FHA data. A total of 88,060 mortgages were endorsed for FHA insurance in October, down from 91,963 loans in September. Of the October endorsements, 60,596 were purchase loans, down 9.0 percent from the previous month and 7.9 percent from the same reporting period last year. FHA refinancing increased 15.4 percent on a month-to-month basis but declined a whopping 57.9 percent from last year. Streamlined FHA refis were ... (Comes with one chart) Read More

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