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Inside Mortgage Finance

September 18, 2008

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Amended FHA Bill on Seller-Funded Downpayment Aid, Risk-Based Premiums, Passed to House Floor

The House Financial Services Committee this week approved a revised bill that would revive a controversial FHA program for seller-funded downpayment assistance and allow the agency to deploy a new risk-based premium program. Committee Chairman Barney Frank, D-MA, pushed a revised version of H.R. 6694, the FHA Seller-Financed Downpayment Reform and... Read More

Federal Agencies Say FHA Homeowner Bailout Program Will Launch on Time

The Department of Housing and Urban Development and other federal regulators say the HOPE for Homeowners program will be up and running by its anticipated Oct. 1 implementation date, but there are still major hurdles in the way. In a testimony before the House Financial Services Committee this week, FHA Commissioner Brian Montgomery said, “we have been working... Read More

Fresh Market Turmoil Puts More Mortgage Servicing Rights Into Play

New developments in the ongoing train wreck on Wall Street may not have much impact on the mortgage originations market, but the demise of Merrill Lynch and Lehman Brothers does put in play more than $220 billion in mortgage servicing. Lehman Brothers Bank, a Delaware-based thrift, had some $126.8 billion of single-family mortgage loans and servicing rights on its books as of the end of the... Read More

Risk Recoil, Industry Turmoil Lead to Sharp Drop In Higher-Priced Mortgage Originations in 2007

Originations of higher priced mortgages fell dramatically last year as lenders tuned their production engines to lower-risk products and a number of companies fell out of the market altogether, according to a Federal Reserve Board analysis of newly available Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data. The share of closed loans that met the Fed’s higher priced mortgage reporting trigger... [Includes two charts] Read More

House Subcommittee Raps HUD for Declining to Defend RESPA Proposal; Lawmakers Urge OMB to Reject Rule

House lawmakers took the Department of Housing and Urban Development to task this week for not appearing at a hearing to defend its proposed changes to streamline Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act regulations. HUD sent a draft final rule to the Office of Management and Budget in August after getting widespread criticism of its earlier proposal. Rep. Melvin Watt, D-NC, chairman of the... Read More

Fed’s TILA-HOEPA Rule Exposes Lenders to UDAP Claims Based on Practices Previously Deemed Legal

The Federal Reserve Board may have exposed lenders to enforcement action by state attorneys general and class-action lawsuits by declaring that certain lending practices are unfair even if they won’t be regulated under the Home Ownership and Equity Protection Act until next year. Compliance experts on an audio conference hosted by Inside Mortgage Finance Publications last... Read More

MBA Seeks Leadership Role in Restructuring of Mortgage Capital Markets; 2008 Priorities Include RESPA, HERA

The mortgage banking industry has mapped out its lobbying priorities through next year, including expanding the Fannie/Freddie restructuring debate to an aggressive overhaul of the mortgage capital markets, harmonizing early loan disclosures, and implementing the new housing law. The current environment presents an opportunity for a bold “do over” for the mortgage industry, to... Read More

Refinance Share Drops in Second Quarter Mortgage Originations; Chase Catches Up

Refinancing remained the major reason borrowers took out a new mortgage during the second quarter of 2008, although the refi share of new production dropped significantly, according to a new market analysis and ranking by Inside Mortgage Finance. An estimated $232.0 billion of refinance mortgages were originated during the second quarter, down 23 percent from the first... [Includes one chart] Read More

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