The FHA will provide lenders that originate Home Equity Conversion Mortgage loans the option to view and print unsigned HECM counseling certificates in FHA Connection starting Sept. 18, 2017. While the lender may still take the initial loan application, the lender can only begin to process it once the counseling is complete, as evidenced by a completed HECM counseling certificate that contains signatures of both the counselor and borrower. Lenders that chose to use this option will be required to establish procedures to obtain and document authorization from the HECM borrower to access the counseling certificate in FHA Connection. In addition, lenders must certify that a borrower authorization to view the counseling certificate was obtained. Lenders must follow the guidance on processing HECM loans contained in the HUD Handbook, the FHA said. To access HECM counseling certificates, lenders will ...

DOL’s Overtime Rule Dead – For Now. A federal district court in Texas recently struck down an Obama administration proposal that would have made millions of people eligible for overtime pay. Judge Amos Mazzant of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas on Aug. 31 invalidated the DOL’s pending overtime regulations, which would have raised the salary threshold exemptions under the Fair Labor Standards Act. The Obama administration finalized the proposed regulations in May last year but was unable to implement them after Mazzant granted a request for injunction filed by the Plano Chamber of Commerce and 55 other business groups last November. The business entities opposed the proposed rule, which would have raised the minimum salary threshold necessary to qualify for the FLSA’s overtime exemption. The salary threshold would have increased from ...

First-time homebuyers accounted for $170.3 billion of securitized purchase mortgages during the first half of 2017, according to an Inside FHA/VA Lending analysis of loan-level data for mortgage-backed securities issued by Ginnie mae, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Purchase-mortgage origination to first-time homebuyers was up 15.7 percent year-over-year and comprised 50.3 percent of total purchase-mortgage loans securitized during the six-month period. FHA accounted for 36.8 percent ($61.4 billion) of first-time homebuyer purchase mortgages delivered into agency pools from beginning to midyear, while conventional purchase mortgages with private mortgage insurance accounted for 28.3 percent ($48.3 billion) over the same period. FHA and private MI are the two leading mortgage insurers for first-time homebuyers. Together, they have provided mortgage insurance for nearly ... [Charts]

The Department of Housing and Urban Development this week announced changes to the FHA-insured reverse mortgage program, including a 200 basis point adjustment in the upfront mortgage insurance premium that may shut out some potential borrowers. HUD officials acknowledged during a press call that changes in both the upfront MIP and the HECM principal limit factors could reduce the number of borrowers initially by as much as 20 percent. Officials estimated that there are approximately 24 million seniors with untapped equity in their homes. “Overall, it is still a very large potential market,” said one official who spoke on background. “In the last few years, we did about 45,000 to 50,000 reverse mortgages annually. The net effect of all these changes is a better and safe HECM program for seniors. We’ll just have to wait and see how it plays out.” The revisions would help stabilize the ...

Working past age 62 is usually a less costly way to increase a senior’s Social Security benefit than borrowing a reverse mortgage, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. In a report published last week, the CFPB warned that a strategy touted by financial consultants to seniors – borrowing a reverse mortgage loan to get more SS benefits later – could result in significant costs that may erase gains from delaying SS benefits. The strategy would require older homeowners to borrow a reverse mortgage at age 62, the minimum age a person can begin collecting SS benefits, in order to delay claiming such benefits. This means retirees would use the proceeds from a reverse mortgage to replace the money they would otherwise receive from SS in the years between 62 up to their full benefit age of 66 (for those born before 1960) and 67 (for those born after 1960), or their maximum ...

The FHA has issued guidance to clarify new servicing requirements in the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage final rule that will take effect on Sept. 17, 2017. The HECM final rule codifies previously issued policies as well as new policies contained in the HECM proposed rule published on May 19, 2016. The guidance provides more detail on three servicing policies contained in the HECM final rule that HUD published in the Federal Register on Jan. 19. These policy areas include default for unpaid property charges, sale of property securing a due and payable HECM, and cash-for-keys and relocation incentives. The comment period ends on Sept. 24. Specifically, the guidance clarifies when a lender must submit a due-and-payable request if a borrower is unable or unwilling to repay funds advanced by the lender to pay property charges. In addition, the guidance updates the ...

Several mortgagee letters issued this week may have lifted the Department of Housing and Urban Development out of the doldrums, though that can quickly change if key staff positions remain vacant for a longer period, according to industry observers. Observers say problems might arise, as two key staff positions that are crucial to the implementation and enforcement of any HUD rule remain vacant. The Trump administration’s proposed deep cuts to HUD’s FY 2018 spending bill and Republican opposition to HUD’s Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing Rule reportedly have put a crimp on the nominations for the department’s top staff positions, observers said. Confirmations of Pamela Pantenaude as HUD deputy secretary and J. Paul Compton as HUD general counsel appear stalled on the Senate floor. The Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs approved ...

The FHA and VA reached a milestone of sorts in the second quarter of 2017 when both agencies hit their lowest delinquency levels in as many years, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s quarterly survey of mortgage delinquencies nationwide. The FHA delinquency rate fell to 7.94 percent from 8.09 percent in the first quarter on a seasonally adjusted basis, reaching its lowest level since 1996. Also on a seasonally adjusted basis, the VA delinquency rate declined to 3.72 percent from 3.90 percent in the previous quarter, the lowest it has been since 1979. Mortgage delinquencies also decreased for conventional loans on a seasonally adjusted basis. It dropped to 3.47 percent from 4.04 percent in the first quarter on a seasonally adjusted basis. Overall, the delinquency rate for mortgage loans on single-family residential homes fell to a seasonally adjusted rate of 4.24 percent of all ...

The FHA this week extended temporary rules for approving condominium projects for FHA financing indefinitely. The extension will remain in place until the condominium rulemaking process is completed, the agency said in a mortgagee letter. Temporary approval requirements were first issued in 2012 and later modified in 2015. The current temporary provisions expired on Aug. 31, 2017. Under a proposed rule issued for comment on Sept. 27, 2016, elderly condominium owners would find it easier to obtain a Home Equity Conversion Mortgage. FHA proposes to reinstate “spot condo” approvals whereby individual units are approved by FHA rather than the entire condominium project as required under current rules. Spot-condo approvals would require property recertification every three years rather than the current two-year requirements. Processing recertifications would be streamlined under the ...

The FHA has posted a quick-reference sheet on its website to help lenders navigate the agency’s new Loan Review System. The quick-reference sheet summarizes the most important information in the LRS user manual. The LRS is an electronic platform for single-family, quality-control processes that includes post-endorsement loan reviews, direct endorsement authority test cases, lender-monitoring reviews, and lender-self-reporting of fraud and other material findings. Defect taxonomy, a key LRS component, provides a streamlined method of identifying and capturing information about loan defects uncovered through individual loan reviews. Lenders have four opportunities to respond to FHA reviews. They may access the LRS to view the results of the review in detail but they may not edit or submit responses, upload documents, manage binder requests or create self-reports. When FHA requests a ...