The top Democrat and Republican on the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee acknowledged this week they will not make their ambitious deadline of clearing a housing-finance reform bill by the end of this year. But the senior lawmakers said they remain “bullish” on moving legislation to the Senate floor sooner rather than later in 2014. Speaking at a Bipartisan Policy Center event, Committee Chairman Tim Johnson, D-SD, blamed “a couple of curveballs,” including the 16-day government shutdown, for falling short of the deadline he and Idaho Republican Mike Crapo set for the committee. The committee did manage to hold 12 hearings on reform and what to do with the two government-sponsored enterprises that have been in conservatorship for a little over five years. “Beyond private capital, we are also working...

Severe decreases in the FHA loan limits in numerous counties across the country have spurred industry demand for the Department of Housing and Urban Development to disclose the methodology and process it used to determine the new loan limits. Although HUD’s announcement of lower FHA loan limits for 2014 had been long expected, mortgage industry participants were caught off guard by the substantial reductions in FHA loan limits caused by the statutory change in how the limits are calculated and by revised median house prices. For 2014, HUD announced that the national ceiling limit for single-family mortgages in high-cost areas would decline to ... [1 chart]

Policy changes implemented since 2009 appear to be having a positive impact on the FHA Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund, which is still $1.3 billion in the red, but its net worth grew $15 billion over last year’s estimate, according to the latest independent actuarial audit of the FHA fund. The MMI Fund’s economic value improved from negative $16.3 billion last year to negative $1.3 billion. Its capital reserve ratio, which has been a cause of disagreement among lawmakers and industry players, also rose from negative ...

With one week left on Congress’ calendar year, Senate approval of S. 1376, the FHA Solvency Act of 2013, before the end of 2013 is becoming more unlikely, according to lobbyists. The bill is stalled and is unlikely to be brought to the floor any time soon. If the housing sector continues to improve, the government-sponsored enterprises continue to generate profit and the FHA’s newer books of business continue to perform well, passing GSE or FHA reform legislation next year would be an uphill battle, lobbyists said. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that implementing S. 1376 would result in ...

The Department of Housing and Urban Development has released a final rule defining a “qualified mortgage” that is insured by the FHA. The final rule will be effective on Jan. 10, 2014. The HUD rule builds off the QM/Ability-to-Repay rule, which the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau finalized earlier this year. The Dodd-Frank Act requires HUD to propose a QM definition that is aligned with the ability-to-repay criteria set out in the Truth in Lending Act and with the agency’s mission to ...

Lenders will need to order a new appraisal for an FHA-insured real estate-owned property if the current REO appraisal is defective or an adverse condition exists that requires a new assessment of the property, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The requirement is one of several that HUD spelled out recently in Mortgagee Letter 2013-44. The mortgagee letter includes changes to HUD’s policies on the use of an FHA-insured mortgage in the purchase of HUD REO properties and the use of distressed properties in ...

Despite two consecutive quarterly production declines, the Department of Veterans Affairs Home Loan Guaranty program is well on its way to a record year due to strong refinance volumes and demand for home-purchase mortgages. Federally guaranteed lending to military service members fell in the third quarter of 2013 by 10.6 percent from the second quarter while volume over the nine-month period increased by 14.9 percent compared to the same period last year, according to Inside FHA Lending’s analysis of VA lending. Over a nine-month period, VA lenders originated an ...

RHS Extends Submission Deadline for Online Homeownership Courses. The Rural Housing Service has extended the deadline for submitting online homeownership education courses for use in the agency’s Single Family House Section 502 Direct Loan Program. The new deadline is Dec. 31, 2013. The RHS will review all submitted education packages, each of which should include a course background, a copy of a certificate of completion, a price sheet, and the user’s contact information. HUD Extends Recertification Filing Deadline for All Lenders. The Department of Housing and Urban Development has extended the ...

It wasn’t much of a surprise when the Department of Housing and Urban Development announced FHA loan limits for 2014 that lowered the top high-cost market limit, but many were caught off guard by the change in how limits are calculated and by revised median house prices. HUD this week announced that the cap for single-family mortgages in the most expensive housing markets of the lower 48 states would drop from $729,750 to $625,500. That’s the same as the maximum high-cost limit for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. During the first half of 2013, only about $2.05 billion of FHA loans exceeded $625,500, or about 1.5 percent of FHA business. But the sunset of the FHA provisions in the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008 also meant...

The Department of Housing and Urban Development this week issued a final rule implementing a qualified-mortgage standard for FHA loans that is essentially unchanged from the agency’s first proposal issued in late September. HUD determined that it had to tweak the calculation of points and fees that is in the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s QM rule so that a large number – about 19 percent – of FHA forward mortgages will be classified as QMs. The final HUD rule establishes two categories of FHA qualified mortgages: safe-harbor QMs and rebuttable-presumption QMs. FHA forward mortgages will be considered...