Redwood Trust plans to more than triple the dollar amount of non-agency jumbo mortgage-backed securities it issues this year compared with its issuance from 2012, according to comments this week from officials at the real estate investment trust. Redwood also plans to securitize conforming jumbos and even aggregate conforming loans to sell to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The REIT’s goal for 2013 is to issue about $7.0 billion in non-agency MBS. While potential competitors struggled to ...
The ability-to-repay rule from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will not have a negative impact on First Republic Bank’s originations of interest-only mortgages, according to James Herbert, chairman and CEO of the bank. Officials at Redwood Trust also said the rule is unlikely to impact its acquisition and securitization of IOs. If anything, First Republic’s Herbert said the new rule from the CFPB, which included harsher treatment for IO originations beginning in 2014, could help increase ...
House Republicans may be able to pass tough FHA reform and solvency legislation out of committee but they may not have enough votes on the House floor or in the Senate to sustain such a bill, according to industry sources. Even after two successive hearings in the House Financial Services Committee this month, there has been no clear indication from Chairman Jeb Hensarling, R-TX, as to which proposals might go into a legislative package of FHA reforms. Hensarling is said to be operating “with a very strong hand,” and if it were up to him entirely, he would draft legislation that would contain some ...
The VA is on pace in 2013 to shatter an old mortgage production record set in 1994, according to agency officials. Mike Frueh, director of the Department of Veterans Affairs’ Home Loan Guaranty Services, said the VA is “trending” to do just about 600,000 home loans even though the home buying-and-selling season, which typically kicks off in the spring, has not yet started. The last time the VA originated that many home loans was in 1994, a banner year for VA mortgage lending to veterans and active members of the military. FY 2012 became the second best year for VA loan originations with ...
The delinquency rate of single-family mortgage loans fell to 7.09 percent of all loans outstanding on a seasonally adjusted basis at the end of the fourth quarter in 2012, the lowest level since 2008, according to the latest Mortgage Bankers Association’s national delinquency survey. The performance of FHA loans, on the other hand, was “mixed,” it said.Loan delinquencies decreased 31 basis points from the prior quarter, and were down 49 basis points from a year ago due to significant improvements in mortgage performance nationwide and in almost every state, the trade group said.“The 30-day delinquency rate dropped by ...
A modest decline in FHA endorsements of jumbo loans in the fourth quarter of 2012 could presage further declines this year, following the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s recent proposal to raise the downpayment requirement to 5 percent, from 3.5 percent, for loans above $625,500. The FHA already has raised its jumbo mortgage insurance premiums to 1.55 percent annually and increased the monthly premiums on new, non-jumbo FHA mortgages by 10 basis points. The agency retained the 3.5 percent downpayment for new forward mortgages below $625,500. The increased premiums are ... [2 charts]
Industry participants who track various FHA data, including Home Equity Conversion Mortgage loans and Neighborhood Watch compare ratios, may have noticed delays in their postings. For example, the latest available data for HECM originations was in September, the end of fiscal year 2012, and no updates have been posted since. David Stevens, president and chief executive officer of the Mortgage Bankers Association, also wondered why Neighborhood Watch was down. He suspected lack of funding. A Department of Housing and Urban Development spokesman explained that the FHA’s reporting timelines and procedures are undergoing ...
The Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of the Inspector General has alerted the FHA of significant potential losses because a California-based direct endorsement lender allowed certain FHA-insured loans with prohibited restrictive covenants to be recorded. An OIG audit of 84 FHA-insured loans underwritten by Standard Pacific Mortgage of Irvine, CA, found 28 loans with unallowable restrictive covenants that were recorded in certain Florida and Arizona county registers. The loans were closed between Jan. 1, 2008, and Dec. 31, 2011, the OIG said. Of the 28 loans, 15 resulted in ...
NCOA Booklet Required Reading for HECM Borrowers. The National Council on Aging has announced the availability of the 2013 version of “Use Your Home to Stay at Home,”, the official reverse mortgage booklet approved by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The booklet is designed to help older homeowners understands the pros and cons of a reverse mortgage. Federal law requires that all individuals who are considering a reverse mortgage go through pre-counseling by a HUD-approved counseling agency and receive a copy of the NCOA guide. The NCOA also offers other ...
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