From the category archives:

FHA Loans

Fannie and FHA Pushing the Sales of Foreclosures

by Moe Bedard

Starting today home “Flippers” are now welcome at the FHA.

That’s right, with a glut of foreclosures plaguing the nation’s neighborhoods, the FHA is temporarily removing restrictions on investors who buy and sell homes within 90 days.

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FHA Takes Down Three Lenders & Suspends Fourth

by Moe Bedard

“Mortgagee Review Board underscores FHA’s stepped up lender enforcement efforts”

WASHINGTON – The Federal Housing Administration’s Mortgagee Review Board (MRB) today announced that it is immediately and permanently withdrawing the FHA approval of three mortgage lenders and is suspending a fourth. The MRB withdrew the FHA approval of Strategic Mortgage Corporation (Strategic), ProMortgage Inc., and Americare [...]

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TopDot Mortgage: FHA Takes Action Against Lender

by Moe Bedard

“Lender faulted for gross violations of FHA underwriting standards”

WASHINGTON – The Federal Housing Administration’s Mortgagee Review Board (MRB) today immediately and permanently withdrew the FHA approval of Premium Capital Funding, LLC, a Jericho, New York-based lender doing business as TopDot Mortgage. Today’s action prevents TopDot from participating in FHA programs and seeks a monetary penalty [...]

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FHA to Provide Early Mortgage Intervention to Struggling Homeowner

by Moe Bedard

WASHINGTON – Homeowners with FHA-insured mortgage loans who are experiencing financial hardship are now eligible for loss mitigation assistance before they fall behind on their mortgage payments. Previously, these homeowners were not eligible for such assistance until after they had missed payments.
The Helping Families Save Their Home Act of 2009 signed into law by President [...]

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Why did the Fed’s target Texas FHA lender?

by Moe Bedard

According to the HUD database, Alethes has made about 2,000 FHA loans in the past two years. Due to the high default rate of its borrowers, that translates into a high number of current defaults and claims: 366.
Drilling down more, you can see which of the company’s branches had particular problems. The worst? A small [...]

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HUD OK’s FHA Mortgages for Home Flippers and Quick Resales

by Moe Bedard

HUD TAKES ACTION TO SPEED RESALE OF FORECLOSED PROPERTIES TO NEW OWNERS – Measure to help bring stability to home values and accelerate sale of vacant properties
WASHINGTON – In an effort to stabilize home values and improve conditions in communities where foreclosure activity is high, HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan today announced a temporary policy that [...]

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Senator Schumer Wants FHA to Insure Lend America Borrowers

by Moe Bedard

SCHUMER CALLS ON FHA TO ENSURE THAT ALL QUALIFIED AND APPROVED LEND AMERICA BORROWERS CAN SECURE NEW MORTGAGES AFTER COMPANY IS SHUT DOWN BY THE FEDS
Long Island Based Lend America Was the Largest FHA Mortgage Lender in the NY Metro Area – Now Shut Down After Reports of Significant Fraud
Though the Accused Lender Must be [...]

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Lend America: Feds Force FHA Lender to Shut Down

by Moe Bedard

New York based Federal Housing Administration (FHA) lender, Lend America was shut down by the Feds this past week for apparent fraudulent mortgage practices. Federal authorities revoked the firms license to originate mortgages insured by FHA.
“We have no tolerance for lenders who abuse their FHA-approval,” said FHA Commissioner David Stevens.  “The evidence in this case [...]

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FHA’s New Mortgage Guidelines

by Moe Bedard

After the real estate crash decimated the mortgage market, a tiny government agency has assumed an outsize role in the housing recovery. In 2006, the Federal Housing Administration—which insures home loans against default—backed just 3 percent of new home-purchase mortgages.
Shaun Donovan, secretary of housing and urban development, responded to such criticism yesterday by outlining a [...]

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FHA to Tighten Home Loan Guidelines

by Moe Bedard

The Washington Post reports Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan will tell the House Financial Services Committee that the agency wants to increase the up-front cash paid by borrowers,  raise minimum credit scores for borrowers, and limit how much money sellers can kick in, including paying closing costs or giving free upgrades.

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FHA Goes High End on Home Loans

by Moe Bedard

Legislation last year nearly doubled the maximum mortgage the FHA could insure, to $729,750 for single-unit properties and almost $1 million for multi-unit ones. As a result, the FHA is moving into expensive markets, especially on the West Coast, in which it previously had little or no role. Even some fairly fancy condo buildings are [...]

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Video: FHA Mortgage Probe

by Moe Bedard

FHA, the Federal Government’s home mortgage insurer is at risk of running out of money. As Hari Sreenivasan of CBS reports, a federal agency has been helping the housing market, but this is risky.

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Will FHA Make it Through “This” Depression?

by Moe Bedard

That hasn’t come without cost. As the FHA filled the void left by the private sector, it has assumed the risks of those loans. And now that a growing number of people have stopped paying their mortgages, the FHA has had to pay out more in claims that it forecast. The agency has just $3.6 [...]

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Does FHA need a bailout?

by Moe Bedard

WASHINGTON – The Federal Housing Administration, which propped up the collapsing housing market last year, acknowledged yesterday that it has drained its cash reserves to dangerously low levels, heightening concerns that it might need a taxpayer bailout.
The agency, which guarantees loans for many first-time homebuyers, could be hit if housing prices lose ground or if [...]

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New Homebuyer Program Already Seeing Signs of Mortgage Fraud

by Moe Bedard

While government officials said many suspect claims could turn out to be simple errors, the report found examples of claimants who already owned homes or had not yet bought one. Some 582 taxpayers were under 18 years old — as young as 4. Of the 1.4 million people who have claimed nearly $10 billion in [...]

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FHA may be setting up repeat of housing bubble, lawmakers worry

by Moe Bedard

Some lawmakers, however, worry that the FHA may be doing its job too well — enabling too many people with shaky finances to get loans, and in effect setting up a potential repeat of the housing bubble fueled in part by no-questions-asked subprime loans.
Recent numbers appear to underscore those concerns. The percentage of FHA loans [...]

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Home Loans Brokered By Nonprofits Helped Fuel The Housing Crisis

by Moe Bedard

Nehemiah, the Sacramento, Calif.-based inventor of seller-funded down payment assistance, and its closest competitor, AmeriDream of Gaithersburg, Md., together facilitated 40 percent of all such loans backed by the FHA. Over eight years, they arranged 392,000 mortgages worth $54 billion, records from the Department of Housing and Urban Development show.
While the two nonprofits earned tens [...]

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FHA foreclosures up, reserves down

by Moe Bedard

As the Federal Housing Administration rapidly increases its role in the mortgage lending business, it’s starting to face a growing number of foreclosures. While in 2006 the FHA’s market share was just 2.7 percent, now that the subprime market is just about dead, the FHA has picked up the slack and its market share reached [...]

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New FHA-Making Home Affordable Loan Modification Guidelines

by Moe Bedard

Press Release – HUD SECRETARY DONOVAN ANNOUNCES NEW FHA-MAKING HOME AFFORDABLE LOAN MODIFICATION GUIDELINES
New FHA guidelines projected to help thousands avoid foreclosure per year
WASHINGTON – U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan today announced the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) has implemented changes to its loan modification program to ensure consistency with the [...]

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No Hope for These Homeowners Part 1

by Moe Bedard

De Las Mercedes, on October 20th, 2008 at 8:34 pm Said:
I am having a problem with Countrywide/Bank of America allowing me to apply for this program because I have not been delinquent.
I meet all the qualifications outlined by the Hope for Homeowners program; however, the home retention unit states that I am not [...]

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