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Archive for March 2012
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March 31, 2012Up-Dated Federal Housing Administration Maximum Loan Limits
March 31, 2012FHA has published Mortgagee Letter 2011-39 which provides a comprehensive update to the FHA’s single-family loan limits. Learn more…
FHA EXTENDS WAIVER OF ANTI-FLIPPING REGULATIONS THROUGH 2012
March 31, 2012In an effort to continue stabilizing home values and improve conditions in communities experiencing high foreclosure activity, FHA Commissioner Carol J. Galante extended a temporary waiver on 12/28/11 of FHA’s anti-flipping regulations through 2012. Read FHA’s press release. Read the anti -flipping waiver.
HUD OFFERS MORE THAN $40 MILLION IN GRANTS FOR HOUSING COUNSELING
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development today announced that more than $40 million is available for a broad range of housing counseling programs to help families find and preserve housing. These grants will be awarded competitively to hundreds of HUD-approved counseling agencies and State Housing Finance Agencies across the nation that offer a variety of services including how to avoid foreclosure, how to avoid mortgage scams, how to purchase or rent a home, how to improve credit scores, and how to qualify for a reverse mortgage. Read the entire press release online.
FHA Bill to Boost MIP Caps Moves Forward in House
March 28, 2012By Andrew Scoggin – March 27, 2012 – 6:09pm
A House committee voted unanimously to pass a bill that looks to give a boost to the Federal Housing Administration through increased mortgage insurance premium caps and other changes.
The FHA, under the bill, could charge up to 2.05% for its annual mortgage premium, up from a current 1.55% maximum. It also sets a minimum of 0.55% for the yearly payment.
Those premiums are set to rise by 10 basis points in April to 1.2% for new mortgages, or 1.25% for loans with a loan-to-value ratio above 95%. That increase stems from a December law that temporarily extended a payroll tax cut.
To read full article – http://www.housingwire.com/article/fha-bill-moves-along-house
Deutsche Bank to Pay $32.5 Million to Settle Mortgage Suit
March 28, 2012By Thom Weidlich – Mar 26, 2012 9:53 AM PT
Deutsche Bank AG (DBK), Germany’s biggest lender, agreed to pay $32.5 million to settle claims in U.S. litigation that it lied about the quality of home loans underlying securities it sold. The investors that sued, including the Massachusetts Bricklayers and Masons Trust Funds, filed a motion for preliminary approval of the settlement in federal court in Central Islip, New York, today.
“The proposed settlement will provide a substantial monetary benefit to the settlement class,” lawyers for the plaintiffs wrote in the filing. U.S. District Judge Leonard D. Wexler must approve the deal.
Just In From HUD – The Facts On FHA
March 27, 2012I just got this from HUD –
Written by: FHA Acting Commissioner Carol Galante
The health of the FHA and management of its business have been frequent topics of discussion in the media and among our stakeholders in recent months. Certainly, these are important issues to the ongoing recovery of our economy, to the future of our housing finance system, and to American taxpayers. We welcome a robust and healthy discussion of ways to further strengthen FHA, but such an exchange is only possible when it is based upon accurate information. Today, we have posted Myths and Facts Regarding the FHA Single-Family Loan Guarantee Portfolio to address a range of questions and concerns regarding the FHA and the methods used to evaluate its health.
But any discussion of FHA’s Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund (MMIF) must start at the beginning: the health of the fund and state of the market in late 2008 to early 2009. Immediately prior to the Obama Administration taking office, FHA’s portfolio was beginning to experience significant stress as a result of economic conditions and a large volume of loans supported by seller-funded downpayments. When home prices fell and the recession deepened, these books began to default and claim at record rates. This Administration acted quickly and aggressively to avoid repeating those mistakes and to mitigate their effect on the fund, while still ensuring that FHA performs its mission of providing access to the housing market, particularly for underserved communities.
We have taken more steps since January 2009 to eliminate unnecessary credit risk and assure strong premium revenue flows than any Administration in FHA history, and those efforts continue.
To stabilize the MMIF and contribute to FHA’s ability to remain a strong and viable financing option for all credit worthy borrowers, we have instituted a series of premium increases for FHA products, including the recently announced changes to the annual and upfront premiums expected to add more than $1 billion in additional receipts for FHA beyond those anticipated in the President’s budget.
We have significantly increased oversight of lenders and enforcement of FHA requirements. With the landmark servicing settlement with the nation’s largest mortgage servicers and additional origination settlements with individual lenders and, FHA’s MMI Fund will be compensated over $900 million for losses resulting from violations of FHA requirements by servicers and originators of FHA-insured loans.
We will continue aggressive enforcement of our lender requirements to protect the Fund and American taxpayers from bad actors. But we will also clarify the rules of the road for FHA lending, as we have done through our recently published rule which outlines the process for requiring indemnification by participants in our Lender Insurance program for improperly originated loans and giving us a solid foundation for requiring repayment by lenders when those guidelines are violated.
To further decrease risk to the fund, we strengthened borrower qualification requirements to require higher downpayments for borrowers with low credit scores to ensure that FHA-insured mortgage financing is offered to individuals who can meet their mortgage obligations and truly experience the benefits of sustainable homeownership. In addition, HUD is now seeking to reduce allowable seller concessions in order to protect FHA and borrowers from the impacts of inflated appraisals.
We know that lowering costs for responsible FHA borrowers decreases their risk of default and ultimately reduces risk to the fund. Reduced upfront and annual premiums in FHA’s Streamline Refinance program will help more FHA borrowers to take advantage of low interest rates. Moreover, by eliminating those loans from the method FHA uses to compare the relative performance of approved lenders, we have removed an important barrier to lender uptake.
And finally, to better serve borrowers facing difficulties in meeting their mortgage obligations, we have made changes to our already robust mandatory loss mitigation requirements to provide additional opportunities for borrowers to remain in their homes.
This Administration has acted aggressively to strengthen and protect the mortgage insurance fund and put FHA on a sustainable path for the long term. Multiple independent analyses show that we are moving in the right direction and that the outlook for FHA and the fund is much better than it was in 2009 . There are still significant risks remaining — particularly if house prices continue to decline or underlying economic conditions worsen. And in determining the most appropriate actions for FHA we will continue to balance protection of the fund with the need to ensure the continued recovery of a fragile economy.
But it is clear that FHA programs remain vital to ensuring more Americans have the opportunity to realize or maintain the economic security of the middle class. And the work this Administration has done has established a strong foundation upon which we will construct an economy built to last.
Significant Rule Change – FHA to deny mortgage backing for credit disputes above $1,000
March 27, 2012This was just posted on my Google+ page by Walid Muhammad http://ping.fm/llp0V
Beginning April 1, potential borrowers with ongoing credit disputes totaling more than $1,000 will not be able to get a mortgage insured by the Federal Housing Administration.
The rule marks a significant belt-tightening at the FHA whereas the adminstration earlier held no such requirement that disputed credit accounts needed to be paid off.
After April 1, the borrower must either pay off the outstanding balance on these collections accounts or document a payment arrangement that the lender must then submit to the FHA before closing.
#realestate #charlottenc
HUD, VA TO PROVIDE PERMANENT HOUSING AND SUPPORT TO MORE THAN 10,000 HOMELESS VETS
March 27, 2012WASHINGTON – U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan and U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric K. Shinseki announced today that HUD will provide $72.6 million to public housing agencies in all 50 states and the District of Columbia to supply permanent housing and case management for more than 10,000 homeless veterans.
The permanent supportive housing assistance announced today is provided through HUD’s Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing Program (HUD-VASH), a program administered by HUD, VA, and local housing agencies to provide permanent housing with case management and other supportive services for homeless veterans across the country. Read a complete local breakdown of the rental vouchers announced today.
“It’s a national disgrace that one out of every six men and women in our shelters once wore a uniform to serve our country,” said HUD Secretary Donovan. “But we know that by providing housing assistance and case management services, we can significantly reduce the number of veterans living on our streets. Working together, HUD, VA and local housing agencies are making real progress toward ending veteran homelessness once and for all.”
“Under the leadership of President Obama, we have made significant progress in the fight to end homelessness among veterans, but more work remains,” said VA Secretary Shinseki. “The partnership between the federal government and community agencies across the country has strengthened all of our efforts to honor our veterans and keep us on track to prevent and eliminate veteran homelessness by 2015.”
This funding to local housing agencies is part of the Obama Administration’s commitment to end Veteran and long-term chronic homelessness by 2015. Opening Doors: Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness serves as a roadmap for how the federal government will work with state and local agreements to confront the root causes of homelessness, especially among former servicemen and women. HUD’s annual “point in time” estimate of the number of homeless persons and families for 2011 found that veteran homelessness fell by nearly 12 percent (or 8,834 people) since January 2010.
The grants announced today are part of $75 million appropriated for Fiscal Year 2012 to support the housing needs of homeless veterans. VA Medical Centers (VAMC) provide supportive services and case management to eligible homeless veterans. This is the first of two rounds of the 2012 HUD-VASH funding. HUD expects to announce the remaining funding by the end of this summer.
HUD’S MORTGAGEE REVIEW BOARD PERMANENTLY HALTS AMERICAHOMEKEY FROM DOING BUSINESS WITH FHA
March 25, 2012WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Mortgagee Review Board (MRB) today announced that it is immediately and permanently withdrawing approval for AmericaHomeKey, Inc. (AHK) to originate and underwrite new mortgages insured by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA). In addition, the MRB is imposing $268,000 in penalties against the Dallas-based mortgage lender for repeated and serious violations of FHA requirements.
“When we begin to see a pattern of failure to apply our standards, we will act to protect FHA’s financial health as well as consumers” said Acting FHA Commissioner Carol Galante. “We expect lenders to meet our requirements, not just to protect the safety of our insurance fund but to make certain they don’t set up borrowers to fail by putting them into mortgages they ultimately can’t sustain.”
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau?s new Web tool, Ask CFPB
March 25, 2012The new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau launched a new portion of its Web site on Thursday aimed at answering consumers’ most common questions.
The initiative, dubbed Ask CFPB, includes plain-spoken answers to more than 350 inquiries focused on credit cards and mortgages. The agency began accepting complaints on checking accounts, private student loans and auto loans this month, and staff members said they will add information about those products soon.
The FHA Condos Approval Company 