After assuring the mortgage industry that the FHA program and its capital reserve levels would survive without major changes to mortgage premiums or other underwriting requirements, Department of Housing and Urban Development officials acknowledged this week that the agency will probably wind up having to tighten these measures after all. HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan and FHA Commissioner Dave Stevens...
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The Department of Housing and Urban Development proposed a new round of rules this week aimed at increasing accountability of FHA lenders. In testimony on Capitol Hill this week, HUD officials also outlined further changes that will impact lenders. HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan told the House Financial Services committee that his agency is developing a lender scorecard that will summarize the performance of...
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The share of FHA loans above the conforming $417,000 loan limit increased significantly in the third quarter of 2009. Nearly all high-cost markets around the country will have the same loan limits in 2010. So-called FHA conforming jumbo lending – those loans between $417,000 and the $729,750 ceiling – rose 27.1 percent from 2Q09 to 3Q09, even as overall FHA production only increased 6.5 percent over...
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The Department of Housing and Urban Development announced a resolution to a messy situation with Ideal Mortgage Bankers, doing business as Lend America, withdrawing the lender’s FHA approval and effectively putting the company out of business. Lend America became a symbol of small lenders taking advantage of the FHA lending boom during an otherwise turbulent time in the mortgage market, but HUD...
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First-time homebuyers made up 79.0 percent of all FHA-insured purchase mortgages in fiscal 2009, a small increase over last year’s total. In fiscal 2008, first-time homebuyers made up 77.9 percent of FHA purchase-money loans, but the share returned to the levels seen in 2006 and 2007, 79.3 percent and 79.5 percent, respectively, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s fiscal 2009...
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The Department of Housing and Urban Development reminded lenders that there can be no subordinate liens outstanding at the time of a Home Equity Conversion Mortgage origination, unless the liens are court-issued judgments or debts. For example, a homeowner with an existing forward mortgage can use HECM financing to pay off that mortgage and some other debts. But if the HECM proceeds aren’t enough to a pay off...
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