Acting FHA Commissioner Dana Wade voiced concern over increasing shares of FHA-insured loans with high debt-to-income ratios, cash-out refinances and purchase loans with downpayment assistance. Testifying recently before the House Appropriations Committee on the agency’s FY 2019 budget, Wade warned that such disturbing trends suggest that FHA’s exposure to loss could rise and put the Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund and taxpayers at risk. Wade said FHA’s financial health and the impact of the volatile reverse mortgage portfolio are a continuing concerns. Last year, the fund’s economic net worth declined by $1.9 billion and the capital reserve ratio fell to 2.09 percent from 2.35 percent the previous year due to losses associated with Home Equity Conversion Mortgage loans. Wade noted an increase in the proportion of borrowers with DTI ratios in excess of 50 percent. In February, the ...

An approved issuer suspended last month due to alleged VA loan churning activities is back in Ginnie Mae’s multi-issuer mortgage-backed securities program. Nations Lending, ranked 97th in Inside FHA/VA Lending’s top 100 VA lenders, was reinstated after reaching a confidential agreement with Ginnie Mae, according to a source familiar with the case. The Ohio-based lender has been “fully reinstated and [again] able to use all of Ginnie Mae’s programs that are available for lenders in good faith,” said the source, who asked not to be identified. The source declined to provide details of the agreement, maintaining Nations has been very transparent and was “ahead of the curve” in terms of dealing with the churning problem. “Nations began addressing the issue even before Ginnie took action,” he said. Ginnie neither confirmed nor commented on the report. “The evidence will show what is happening in the ...

Many low-income and minority borrowers are forced into FHA loans by risk-based pricing and overlays in the conventional market, only to be stymied by higher FHA premiums and non-cancellable mortgage insurance premiums, according to a new study from the Center for Responsible Lending. The study, “Repairing a Two-Tiered System: The Crucial but Complex Role of FHA,” examines FHA’s pre- and post-crisis lending to white and minority borrowers. It also evaluates the impact of risk-based and FHA pricing as well as the impact of False Claims Act enforcement, which have limited the FHA program’s effectiveness in meeting homeownership goals, said authors Peter Smith, CRL senior researcher, and Melissa Stegman, senior policy counsel. The authors used Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data from 2004 through 2016, focusing solely on single-family purchase mortgages made to ...

Actions by a number of private mortgage insurers to cut borrower-paid premium rates would enhance affordability and enable private MIs to increase their market share at FHA’s expense, according to an analysis from the Urban Institute. So far, Mortgage Guaranty Insurance Corp., Genworth Mortgage Insurance and Radian Guaranty have announced reductions in their respective monthly and single-premium borrower-paid premium rates. The premium cuts will affect more than just affordability, said UI. On March 6, the company announced that it is reducing borrower-paid single-premium rates in most FICO buckets, effective for all MI applications received on or after March 19, 2018. The Philadelphia-based MI also reminded clients that previously announced single-premium restrictions on debt-to-income ratios exceeding 45 percent and a FICO score below 700, or DTI exceeding ...

Reverse mortgage lenders chalked up a win in Florida’s Third District Court of Appeal on the question of whether surviving spouses of borrowers who had taken out a Home Equity Conversion Mortgage loan also qualified as “borrowers” and, therefore, cannot be evicted from the property after the death of the borrower. The appellate court’s ruling contradicted two previous court rulings in Smith v. Reverse Mortgage Solutions, Inc. and Edwards v. Reverse Mortgage Solutions, Inc. Both rulings held that surviving spouses of deceased HECM borrowers also qualified as “borrowers” under the terms of the mortgage and, therefore, entitled to protection from eviction. However, in One West Bank, FSB v. Palmero, the appellate court changed course and outlined the conditions under which a lender could prove that “borrower” meant only the person who actually had taken out the reverse ...

The number of FHA lenders subject to administrative actions by the Department of Housing and Urban Development in FY 2017 declined from the previous fiscal year, according to the latest report from the Mortgagee Review Board. Published in the April 25 Federal Register, the report showed the number of FHA lenders that were hammered with civil money penalties, lost FHA approval, and received suspensions, probations, and reprimands from Oct. 1, 2016, to Sept. 30, 2017, fell to 20 from 25 in FY 2016. But the biggest change was in the number of lenders cited and disciplined for violation of FHA’s annual recertification requirements. Lenders that failed to meet the recertification requirements in a timely manner but eventually came into compliance totaled 52 in FY 2017, down from 106 in fiscal 2016. On the other hand, 23 lenders agreed to settle with HUD after they failed to ...

Guild Mortgage has announced an FHA-backed financing program that would allow homebuyers to finance solar panels through a mortgage when purchasing a house. It is not Property Assessed Clean Energy financing, which has similar goals but is prohibited by FHA because it asserts lien superiority over all other liens, including a residential mortgage. Guild developed the program, FHA Solar, with FHA to ensure adherence to all agency loan requirements, according to a company representative. “It sounds like Guild slapped their own brand on a loan product that appears to fit among FHA’s various energy-efficient programs, not to be confused with PACE obligations, which are no longer a part of our single-family insurance program,” said a Department of Housing and Urban Development spokesman. FHA Solar is available to residents in California. It provides homebuyers the ...

Roughly two years ago, Annaly bought Hatteras Financial, Winston-Salem, NC, in a deal valued at $1.5 billion.

The NAR is hoping that a cut in g-fees (and LLPAs) ultimately will be passed down to consumers – who buy homes from NAR’s members.

Nonbank mortgage lenders have been reporting weak profit margins since January, a situation that has some in the industry alarmed while others believe that as originations increase in the months ahead the tough times will dissipate.