Tag Archives: FHA

Despite rumors earlier in the week that President Barack Obama would announce a settlement between the state attorneys general and the nation's top servicers in his State of the Union address, the president made no such announcement Tuesday night. However, he did announce his intention to save millions of homeowners approximately $3,000 annually on their mortgages by allowing them to refinance at today's low interest rates. Obama also plans to create a Financial Crimes Unit to protect consumers from fraud schemes.

The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) has announced new measures to strengthen standards for the lenders it works with - measures the agency says will help it better manage the risk that comes with insuring mortgages against default. The new regulations raise the bar in terms of lender performance when it comes to seriously delinquent and claim rates, and shores up the agency's processes for requiring lenders to cover losses from insurance claims paid on mortgages that involve fraud or don't meet FHA's underwriting guidelines.

Gateway Mortgage Group is a privately held mortgage bank headquartered in Tulsa, Oklahoma, which provides conventional, Federal Housing Administration (FHA), and Veterans Affairs (VA) loans through 50 retail branches nationwide. The company announced Thursday that it has developed an in-house subservicing unit focused on the specialty and default servicing of FHA and VA loans and hired Kevin Osuna to direct the new operation.

The Collingwood Group announced this week that it has acquired GWN Consulting, LLC, a firm specializing in Federal Housing Administration (FHA) and Ginnie Mae risk management and quality control. GWN's business will operate as part of Collingwood's risk management and compliance division, and will be managed by Brian Montgomery, chairman of Washington, D.C.-based Collingwood. GWN's team of professionals have more than two centuries of combined direct HUD experience.

The Federal Reserve is throwing its support behind a large-scale REO-to-rental program to address the oversupply of vacant homes and prevent property values from falling further. The Fed notes that in contrast to the market for owner-occupied homes, rental housing is strengthening. Officials say a government-facilitated program has the potential to help the housing market and improve loss recoveries. They've identified specific markets with large concentrations of vacant REOs, where bulk sales to investors make sense.

The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) is extending the temporary waiver of its property anti-flipping rule. FHA rules typically prohibit insuring a mortgage on a home owned by the seller for less than 90 days. In 2010, however, the agency waived this regulation, and later extended the waiver through 2011. This latest extension permits the use of FHA-insured financing for HUD-owned and bank-owned properties, no matter how long the homeowner has held the title, through December 31, 2012.

Home prices are expected to post a decline of 1.57 percent for the fourth quarter of 2011, after falling 0.4 percent through September, according to more than 100 economists and housing experts surveyed by Zillow. Prices are forecast to decline until the market's bottom is reached in late 2012 or early 2013. After 2013, panelists expect a steady annual appreciation rate of roughly 3 percent through 2016, which is slightly below appreciation rates experienced during the pre-bubble years.

First Guaranty Mortgage Corp. (FGMC), signaling that it will become more aggressive in the capital markets channel, has added Mark Mayhook as managing director, capital markets. FGMC is a national mortgage lending firm offering retail, wholesale, and correspondent mortgage solutions to clients of varying income and credit types as well as financial institutions of all kinds.

Lawmakers voted late Thursday to increase the ceiling for loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA). Included in a ""minibus"" spending bill passed by both the House and Senate was an amendment to restore the FHA loan limit to $729,750 in high cost areas. The maximum loan limit was lowered from that amount to $625,500 on October 1st for government housing agencies, including FHA, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac. The loan limits for Fannie Mae- and Freddie Mac-backed mortgages were not raised with the newly passed measure.

Hudson & Marshall conducted an REO auction event for HUD in Las Vegas earlier this month targeting owner-occupants. The result? There are now more than 100 new owners of homes throughout both Nevada and Arizona that were previously sitting idle and vacant as part of the government's foreclosed inventory. The Las Vegas event was the culmination of a five-week aggressive marketing campaign, and was conducted in conjunction with BLB Resources.