Ginnie Mae has reduced the required minimum size for mortgage-backed securities pools with home-equity conversion mortgages from $1.0 million to $250,000.
FHA is taking comments through April 17 on a request for information on the barriers consumers and lenders face in accessing the FHA 203(k) rehabilitation mortgage program.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development announced an agreement with Louisiana that will free borrowers from debt related to a program meant to mitigate against hurricane risk post Katrina.
The Urban Institute has called on federal housing agencies to accommodate automated valuation models as their starting points, with human appraisers checking the accuracy of the data as a back-up.
The National Consumer Law Center said FHA should reform its home equity conversion mortgage program to reduce the number of so-called preventable foreclosures.
By targeting price cuts at low-FICO score and high-LTV borrowers, the new pricing grids of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could increase market overlap with FHA.
The VA is adding a step to its appraisal bias detection procedures. Meanwhile, the National Association of Realtors told the agency not to rush its appraisal modernization efforts.
The Farm Credit Administration is considering updates to the capital requirements for Farmer Mac, a government-chartered securitization company. The changes would be made to bring the rules up to date with recent changes at other agencies.