FHFA hikes fees for high-balance and second-home loans

The Federal Housing Finance Agency introduced new upfront fees on Wednesday for some high-balance and second-home loans sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Upfront fees for high balance loans will increase between 0.25% and 0.75%, tiered by loan-to-value ratio. For second home loans, the upfront fees will increase between

Read more

20 state attorneys general take aim at mortgage servicers

Some Federal Housing Administration-approved mortgage servicers have routinely flouted the agency’s loan modification program, according to Washington, D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine and 20 other state attorneys general. The attorneys general wrote in a Dec. 21 letter that a number of mortgage servicers employed by FHA-approved lenders failed to adequately

Read more

Mortgage applications slide 2.7% in last week of 2021

Mortgage applications decreased 2.7% from two weeks earlier, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association survey for the week ending Dec. 31, 2021. The results include adjustments to account for the holidays. The holiday adjusted Refinance Index decreased 2% from two weeks ago and was 40% lower than the same week

Read more

loanDepot brings Ginnie Mae loan servicing in-house

loanDepot announced this week that it will begin servicing Ginnie Mae loans in-house, following a 2021 decision to do the same for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac-backed loans. The top-ranked nonbank lender said in a press release that servicing Ginnie Mae loans “carries great significance” because the agency is the primary

Read more

UWM is bullish on the resurgent private-label market

Pontiac, Michigan-based United Wholesale Mortgage (UWM) capitalized on a booming private-label market in 2021 by sponsoring its inaugural securities transaction this past May, a prime jumbo deal involving 508 mortgages with an aggregate principal balance of $351.9 million. That was the start for the nonbank lender, which dominates the nation’s wholesale mortgage

Read more