One UWM broker, requesting anonymity, took the offer with a grain of salt: “If someone wants to help the broker and the consumer, they would dump the application fees.”
FHA forward originations increased modestly in the second quarter while Home Equity Conversion Mortgage production hit its lowest three-month volume since late 2012. Forward endorsements totaled $51.6 billion in the second quarter, up 5.4 percent from the previous period. It was a different story, however, at midyear where volume was down 16.6 percent from the previous year. Fixed-rate mortgages accounted for the majority of FHA forwards produced from April through June, ending the quarter with $51.3 billion, up 5.1 percent from the first three months of 2018. FHA adjustable-rate mortgages posted a whopping 88.7 percent increase to end the quarter with $307.4 million. FHA purchase activity rose 19.7 percent, closing the quarter with $41.7 billion, while streamlined refinancing dropped 41.3 percent from the prior period. Conventional-to-FHA refi business also was off ... [Charts]
The Mortgage Bankers Association is seeking clarification from FHA on a number of issues in the agency’s Single Family Housing Policy Handbook following Brian Montgomery’s swear-in as FHA commissioner. The MBA identified seven priority issues which lenders say need further guidance. The issues include the following: Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals and employment authorization documents; Third-party underwriting and vendor verification of borrower income, employment, and assets; Student loan debt calculation; Rent below fair market; Minimum decision credit scores; Contract for deed; and Community transfer fees. In September 2017, President Trump rescinded DACA, a special program created by the Obama administration to provide temporary legal status and work permits to underage persons who entered the U.S. illegally until the government decides ...
It has been more than three years since FHA introduced a new streamlined process of identifying loan defects and their severity to minimize or avoid enforcement action and hefty penalties under the False Claims Act. Despite calls by the mortgage industry to improve and clarify the process – the Single-Family Loan Quality Assessment methodology or “defect taxonomy” – the FHA has yet to make a move to meet industry demands for more detailed defect taxonomy. Contacted for an update on the defect taxonomy, a Housing and Urban Development spokesperson said simply, “Nothing to report on this.” An outgrowth of lender concern over the government’s indiscriminate use of the FCA to prosecute mortgage fraud and recover FHA losses, the defect taxonomy establishes nine categories of loan defects in loans it endorses. The nine defect categories replaced the 99 loan defect codes that were ...
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