Some good news from Capitol Hill this past week came in the form of an announcement that the House approved a Bill (by a 427-0 margin) that would make substantive changes in FHA’s condominium project approval and recertification procedures. In my November 24, 2015, Blog Post, I discussed three subtle changes implemented by HUD/FHA (at that time) in its condominium…
Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae jointly announced the implementation of an Independent Dispute Resolution (IDR) process which is designed to help resolve alleged loan-level breaches of selling representations or warranties that remain unresolved after all other appeals have been exhausted. This was announced in Freddie Mac’s Guide Bulletin 2016-1. This final, final appeal process will be available for all mortgages…
HUD/FHA announced on Jan. 28th, that it will be lowering mortgage insurance rates for multifamily (5 or more units) mortgages in an effort to increase multifamily loan originations. This could result in the rehabilitation of as many as 12,000 additional units of affordable housing per year on a national basis. Default/claim rates on the FHA multifamily loan portfolio have traditionally…
Recently, Fannie Mae announced the implementation of its new “Home Ready” mortgage product. According to Fannie Mae, this mortgage product was designed to support homeownership opportunities among underserved populations. They now recognize the growth of extended-household living arrangements and by allow the existence of non-borrower income to be considered as a compensating factor in Desktop Underwriter. Articles are already being…
Home Equity loans are becoming popular once again. Interest rates remain relatively low, home values have been appreciating in many parts of the country, college tuition costs continue to rise and credit card debt remains high for many homeowners. This is a “perfect storm” scenario for the resurgence in the origination of Home Equity loans as a source of needed…
Both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac reported in December that they are considering offering lenders alternatives to repurchase requests for loans that have documented defects but are still considered to be of good quality. I enjoy a good oxymoron. These are some of my favorites: “jumbo shrimp”, “serious joke”, “virtual reality”, “small crowd”, “random order”, “student teacher” and “act naturally”.…
