Tag Archives: FHA

With high foreclosure rates still presenting a major hurdle to housing and economic recovery, GAO conducted a study to evaluate and find opportunities to enhance foreclosure mitigation efforts. The report asserts that government agencies participating in foreclosure mitigation programs need improve their existing strategies to help borrowers. The report specifically addressed loans modified by the Treasury (through HAMP), the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), FHA, and the GSEs.

Under federal policy, those who are behind on their taxes are ineligible for FHA mortgage insurance unless they repay their debt or are in a valid repayment agreement with the IRS. However, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that FHA insured over $1.44 billion in mortgages for 6,327 borrowers who had a total of $77.6 million in federal tax debt. The watchdog group explained that the borrowers benefited from the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which includes a provision that increased mortgage insurance loan limits and provided an estimated $12 billion in Recovery Act First-Time Homebuyer Credits (FTHBCs) to 1.7 million individuals.

On July 1, borrowers wanting to take out an FHA-insured loan would have potentially experienced a closing delay of 3 months or more if they had debt totaling or exceeding $1,000. Now, the FHA ""credit-dispute"" rule has been withdrawn, according to an agency letter released Friday. A HUD spokesperson said in an email that the decision to rescind the earlier proposal was based on input received. A new guidance on the issue will also be published very soon, the spokeperson stated.

Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Shaun Donovan and Federal Housing Administration (FHA) Commissioner Carol Galante announced in a press conference Friday FHA's program to sell mortgage loan pools to investors. The Distressed Asset Stabilization Program, designed to give homeowners with seriously delinquent loans a chance to avoid foreclosure, is an expansion of an earlier FHA pilot program that allows investors to purchase loan pools headed for foreclosure. Investors are then charged with the task of working to bring the loan out of default. The program starts in September 2012 with a sale of the loan pools.

GFI Mortgage Bankers filed a motion Friday to dismiss a suit from the Department of Justice that alleged discrimination in GFI's lending practices. GFI's motion asserts that the disparate impact discrimination statutes cited by DOJ in its suit-the Fair Housing Act (FHA) and the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA)-do not contain language that permits anti-discrimination claims. The company also argues that the practice of allowing employees discretion when pricing loans is standard policy and widely accepted in the industry.

Home prices for GSE-backed mortgages rose 0.6 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis in the first quarter of 2012 compared to the previous 2011 fourth quarter, according to FHFA's purchase-only home price index (HPI). Prices also showed a 0.5 percent increase from the year ago first quarter, and month-over-month, prices increased 1.8 percent in March. The purchase only HPI uses home sales price information from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans and includes more than 6 million repeat sales transactions.

Nineteen members of California's congressional delegation want to keep Fannie Mae's and Freddie Mac's ""for rent"" signs outside their state's borders. Led by Congressman Gary Miller, the group sent a letter to Edward DeMarco, acting director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, petitioning him to exclude the 600 homes in California slated for the pilot program of the REO Initiative, which aims to sell off homes repossessed by the GSEs and FHA to institutional investors who will turn the properties into rental homes.

The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) rule that would delay potential borrowers with outstanding collections debt of $1,000 or more from getting an FHA-insured loan is on hold until July 1. The rule proposes that if a borrower has collections debt of $1,000 or more, a he or she must go on a repayment plan for the debt for a minimum of 3 months to be eligible. This would cause a delay from receiving approval for a loan for 90 days or more.

Starting next Monday on April 9, FHA upfront mortgage insurance premiums will rise from 1 percent to 1.75 percent of the base loan amount, and the annual mortgage insurance premium will rise by 0.10 percent for loans under $625,500 and by 0.35 percent for loans above that amount. Even if one hasn't applied for a loan just yet, Dan Green, loan officer with Waterstone Mortgage in Cincinnati and author of themortgagereports.com, said by getting an FHA loan registered by April 9, one can avoid paying those premiums.

After a forecast from Moody's Analytics hinted that the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) is at risk of requiring a taxpayer bailout, the FHA released a myths and facts sheet and categorized speculation about a bailout as myth. ""Sweeping changes enacted by FHA since 2009, including an important series of recent steps such as the enforcement actions that resulted in over $900 million in compensation to FHA from settlement agreements with major banks, and further increases to FHA's insurance premiums, it is unlikely that FHA would require additional resources from the U.S. Treasury in FY 2012,"" the FHA stated.