The Federal Housing Administration has played a fundamental role in helping stabilize the nation’s housing market; however, FHA reform is critical for keeping the housing and economic recovery on the right track. This was the message delivered by David H. Stevens, assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and Federal Housing [...]

Due to an overwhelming number of requests to approve condo projects, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) said its response times have exceeded 72 hours. The backup comes after new regulations eliminated spot approvals and require that all condo projects get re-certified. The decision is causing delays in closings for consumers says [...]

Pressure is mounting on loan servicers and investors to reduce troubled homeowners’ loan balances…but the two largest owners of mortgages aren’t getting the message. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which are controlled by the federal government, do not lower the principal on the loans they back, instead opting for interest rate reductions and term extensions [...]

This morning FHA Commissioner David Stevens told a couple of thousand realtors at a conference in Washington, DC that there is “no end in sight” to the growing number of FHA loans. When I interviewed him about a half hour later, and asked him how, if that’s the case, the private mortgage insurers can get [...]

U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Shaun Donovan announced today that the Obama Administration will work with Congress to find ways to help state and local governments more effectively combat the ongoing effects of the housing crisis and home foreclosures through additional funding for the Department’s Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) and foreclosure prevention counseling. [...]

The U.S. Department of the Treasury and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) today released April data for the Administration’s Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) showing that permanent modifications for almost 300,000 homeowners – an increase of 68,000 or almost 13 percent over March. New in this month’s report is information about servicer-specific [...]

Freddie Mac on Wednesday requested another $10.6 billion handout from the federal government. The housing finance company, which reported an $6.7 billion quarterly loss, was put into conservatorship by the government during the height of the financial panic in September 2008 along with its twin Fannie Mae (FNM, Fortune 500). Freddie also paid a $1.3 [...]

The Federal Housing Administration, the government agency that insures a bigger and bigger portion of home loans, plans to rely more heavily on lenders to police mortgage brokers. The changes will put more of the onus on lenders to make sure there is no fraud or faulty underwriting in the loans they fund, and less [...]

As promised, in part two of our ‘Mortgage Pros React’ series, we’re going to explore the reactions of mortgage professionals to Peter Miller’s “six ways to fix the mortgage mess.” “Fixing the mortgage system is crucial if we’re to prevent another financial meltdown,” writes Miller. Several experts not only gave us their immediate reactions to [...]

About a month ago we published a post — titled “We Want to Hear from Lenders!” — that asked mortgage professionals to share their opinions and reactions to the recent changes in the mortgage market. It may have taken a while, but thanks to another post we published last week — titled “Fixing the Mortgage [...]