Banks and thrifts continued to push a high volume of home mortgages into the secondary market during the first three months of 2013, but the pace was slowing, according to a new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of call report data. The industry reported $395.8 billion in single-family mortgage sales during the first quarter, down 5.1 percent from the previous period. It was a stronger sales volume than during the first quarter of 2012, however, and ranked as the fourth largest ... [Includes one data chart]

In late May, in the time span of about 10 days, Bexil American Mortgage of San Diego saw its founder and national sales manager depart – not a good sign for a relatively young company that has been originating loans for less than two years. About a week after the news broke about the two men, the parent company reported a $7.1 million loss for the year. John Robbins, the founder and CEO of Bexil American Mortgage, told Inside Mortgage Trends that, “When you have a major shareholder disagree with ...

Things are looking up in the private mortgage insurance business as the market becomes more stable and the industry could turn a profit in the near future, according to a new analysis by Standard & Poor’s. Mortgage Guaranty Insurance Corp.’s and Radian Guaranty Inc.’s debt and equity increases in the first quarter, as well as the restructuring implemented by Genworth Mortgage Insurance Corp., have raised analysts’ hope and mitigated concerns about capital and the potential for any ...

Bank and thrift holdings of mortgages were higher in the first quarter of 2013 compared to a year ago, driven by originations of nonconforming loans. While two banks have started to securitize jumbo mortgages, the vast majority of jumbo originations remain in portfolio. Bank holdings of first-lien mortgages hit $1.78 trillion at the end of the first quarter of 2013, up 2.2 percent from the first quarter of 2012, according to a new ranking and analysis by Inside Nonconforming Markets ... [Includes one data chart]

The FHA and the Department of Justice have ramped up enforcement actions against more than a dozen mortgage lenders in recent weeks for alleged agency rule violations. At least two of the lenders have received notices from the DOJ that they are in violation of the False Claims Act. According to the Collingwood Group, a Washington-based business advisory firm, the agencies have sent notices of enforcement or “administrative” actions to as many as 15 FHA direct endorsement (DE) lenders, some of whom could lose their DE status if found to have engaged in improper lending practices that resulted in huge losses for the FHA. The latest enforcement actions have ...

The Department of Veterans Affairs is planning to raise the residual income limit requirement for home loan applicants by 15 percent – a move that could shut out many veterans who have limited income. The proposal is one of several measures under consideration for the VA’s Home Loan Program, said Carol Barnard, a loan production officer in the VA Regional Loan Center in Denver, during a recent webinar hosted by the Collingwood Group, a Washington-based advisory firm. Barnard is also a senior consultant with Collingwood. This change means that, for a family of four in the VA’s Northeast region, the required income residual could jump to ... [1 chart]

Rep. Darrell Issa, R-CA, chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, is planning to quiz top FHA officials about an apparently deliberate effort by the agency to withhold important information from Congress regarding the true financial health of the FHA insurance fund. In a recent letter to FHA Commissioner Carol Galante, Issa said that the stress test employed by Integrated Financial Engineering in its FY 2012 actuarial review of the FHA Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund yielded a more troubling result than what HUD reported to Congress in November last year. In the actuarial review, IFE reported that ...

Wells Fargo has reached an agreement with the Department of Housing and Urban Development and fair housing advocacy groups to improve its handling of foreclosed and abandoned homes and resolve allegations of discrimination in the maintenance and marketing of real estate-owned properties. The National Fair Housing Alliance and several other fair housing groups filed a complaint with HUD in April last year after observing that Wells’ foreclosed homes in minority neighborhoods did not receive the same treatment and care as the bank’s REO properties in white neighborhoods. The NFHA, which conducted an ...

HUD Takes Second Furlough. The Department of Housing and Urban Development this week announced the second of seven furlough days employees are scheduled to take due to mandatory, government-wide budget cuts: June 14. Sequestration went into effect March 1 because Congress failed to pass legislation on balanced deficit reduction. HUD employees took their first forced leave on May 24. Approximately $85 billion will be slashed from the federal budget for the remainder of the fiscal year. The next furlough date is July 5. HUD, however, may not need to ...

Mortgage repurchases and indemnifications soared to a whopping $12.83 billion during the first quarter of 2013, a huge anomalous blip in an otherwise moderating trend. As has been the case over the past few years, industry-wide buyback figures were dramatically skewed by one institution’s settlement. Bank of America recorded a whopping $10.45 billion in mortgage repurchases and indemnifications during the first quarter of 2013, according to a new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis ... [Includes one data chart]