While President Barack Obama and his Republican challenger, Gov. Mitt Romney, differ widely on key issues, both candidates appear to agree on the need to reduce the government’s role in housing and bring private capital back to the mortgage market, industry observers say. Nothing much has been said in public forums or in the first presidential debate (except for a brief mention of the “qualified mortgage” proposal) about the housing issue, but observers say their positions on FHA may not be far apart. Obama’s approach to the housing crisis is ...

Despite problems associated with the program, the FHA 203(k) Rehabilitation Mortgage Program has seen some modest production gains during the last few quarters, according to an Inside FHA Lending analysis of FHA data. Top FHA 203(k) lenders reported $1.8 billion in total originations during the first six months of 2012, with the top five lenders accounting for 46.9 percent of production. Production rose 8.1 percent from the first quarter to the second, from $851.2 million to $920.5 million. Purchase fixer-uppers comprised ... [Includes 1 chart]

The FHA is starting to lose business to private mortgage insurers and the conventional mortgage market because it is no longer the cheaper alternative, a recent industry survey indicated. Numbers released by the Campbell/Inside Mortgage Finance HousingPulse Tracking Survey show consumer preference for conventional home loans rising as a growing number of homebuyers, particularly current homeowners, used mortgages backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to finance home purchases in August. The survey noted that current homeowners increased their use of mortgages in June this year while investor participation began ...

A significant increase in the volume of claims following the announcement of the $25 billion joint servicer settlement earlier this year has created a huge backlog that could potentially threaten the FHA Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund, warned the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of the Inspector General. Separate OIG audits of the five mortgage servicers that signed the groundbreaking settlement pact with federal agencies and state attorneys general in February found that if those servicers were to file all ...

The FHA Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund appears poised for another potential settlement infusion following this week’s announcement of a federal lawsuit against Wells Fargo Bank for alleged reckless underwriting and fraudulent loan certifications on thousands of FHA-insured loans that ultimately defaulted. Filed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan, the lawsuit accuses Wells Fargo of engaging in “a long standing and reckless trifecta of deficient training, deficient underwriting and deficient disclosure, while relying on the convenient backstop of government insurance.” Ten years of Wells Fargo’s alleged misconduct ...

The Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of the Inspector General is seeking indemnification from a sponsored third-party originator (TPO) for potential losses of more than $1.5 million due to poor loan documentation. The IG also ordered the TPO, Bankers Mortgage Group of Woodland Hills, CA, to reimburse the FHA insurance fund $58,704 for the actual loss on one FHA-insured mortgage loan. The IG also recommended that HUD impose fines on Bankers Mortgage for allegedly signing off on false loan information. IG auditors targeted BMG after internal investigators found significant ...

Endorsements of new loans under the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage program continued to slide as production fell significantly during first half of 2012. HECM production declined by 25.0 percent from the same period last year to $7.1 billion and fell 4.9 percent from the first to the second quarter. In-house originations accounted for almost all originations reported by top HECM lenders. Initial principal amount at loan origination totaled $4.7 billion. MetLife Bank led all lenders with $2.03 billion, an estimated 63 percent originated in house, and captured a 28.5 percent market share. Production rose 21.6 percent ... [One chart]

A California operator of an allegedly bogus foreclosure rescue firm has agreed to a $5 million settlement with the Department of Justice and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Based on an investigation by HUD’s Office of the Inspector General, the DOJ filed a civil complaint against Terrill Meisinger, focusing on more than 100 properties that were financed through FHA and conventional loans. The complaint alleged that Meisinger contacted individuals facing foreclosure and offered ...

Historically low mortgage interest rates generated a huge supply of refinance business during the third quarter of 2012 that drove Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac securitization volumes higher, according to a new ranking and analysis by Inside MBS & ABS. A total of $437.7 billion of single-family MBS were issued during the third quarter, up 15.8 percent from the previous three-month period. It was the biggest production volume for the market since the fourth quarter of 2010, and it lifted year-to-date issuance for the first nine months of the year to $1.207 trillion – a 43.2 percent increase over the same period in 2011. MBS issuance gained...[Includes one data chart]

Single-family mortgage securitization by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac increased sharply during the third quarter of 2012, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance ranking and analysis. New production of mortgage-backed securities by the two government-sponsored enterprises rose 22.4 percent from the second quarter, driven by a hefty 19.4 percent increase in refinance business. Refinance loans accounted for 76.9 percent of GSE securitization during the period, and the dollar volume of refi loan sales rose 19.4 percent from the second quarter. Fannie posted...[Includes three data charts]