Refinance originations increased sharply during the third quarter, but relatively little of the gain came from the government’s streamlined program for borrowers with little or no equity. Analysts do expect an uptick in activity under the revamped Home Affordable Refinance Program, but many are braced for lackluster results. A total of $192.0 billion of refi loans were originated during the third quarter, up 31.5 percent from the previous three-month period. While that was significantly greater than the 7.3 percent growth in purchase-money...(Includes three data charts)
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The Department of Housing and Urban Development is weighing a number of options, including raising insurance premiums for the FHA Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund as political concerns grow that the program may need a taxpayer bailout. Testifying before the House Financial Services Committee last week, HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan said he plans to include premium increases and other proposals in the department’s fiscal 2013 budget proposal to bring the FHA’s excess capital reserves back to the required level. Donovan said the FHA continues to evaluate policy options to...
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The dust is starting to settle over an increasingly complex landscape of agency loan limits for 2012 that features 83 defined metro markets where the FHA can insure loans that are too big to be financed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. The Department of Housing and Urban Development this week released guidance on FHA loan limits that changed twice in calendar 2011. On Oct. 1, a new set of FHA loan limits based on a $625,500 maximum went into effect, and they will apply to loans with FHA case numbers assigned between that date and Nov. 17, said...(Includes one data chart)
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President Barack Obama and his Democrat allies on Capitol Hill initiated a multi-prong attack against their Republican opponents this week in an effort to put them on the hook in the 2012 election over their refusal to allow an up-or-down vote on Richard Cordray, the president’s nominee to head the controversial Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The initiative started this weekend, when the White House released a report and began an accompanying media blitz, warning of the dangers American consumers face in the financial marketplace without a director at the...
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Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley sued five major lenders late last week for allegedly illegal foreclosure practices. One of the firms, GMAC Mortgage, responded by pulling out of Massachusetts lending, prompting Coakley to request a Congressional investigation of GMAC. This week, the AGs of California and Nevada followed suit with a joint announcement of a dual mortgage fraud probe. “We have two clear goals with this lawsuit,” Coakley said. “One is to provide for real accountability for the roles the banks have played in unlawful and illegal foreclosures and second...
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The proposal drafted by a senior House Republican that aims to lure private capital into the secondary mortgage market received the general support of industry witnesses at a hearing this week, but Democratic lawmakers say repealing key features of the Dodd-Frank Act would be a non-starter. The Private Mortgage Market Investment Act, drafted but not yet filed by Rep. Scott Garrett, R-NJ., would create a heavily regulated mortgage-backed securities market made up solely of private entities that would function with no federal guarantee at all. Under the bill, the Federal Housing...
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Patton Boggs, a large Washington DC-based law and lobbying firm, has seen an en masse exodus of its mortgage banking lawyers. Ballard Spahr created a Mortgage Banking Group for the three Patton Boggs partners and an associate, while Dykema welcomed two senior attorneys to its growing Financial Services Regulatory and Compliance practice. Patton Boggs did not return calls for comment regarding the future of its own mortgage practice, and the departed lawyers would not speculate as to the future of their former firm. Partners Richard Andreano, John Socknat and Michael Waldron...
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