Tag Archives: FHA

Castro faced the House Committee on Financial Services and explained why he believes that FHA is in a "strong" position to lower its premiums by 50 basis points down to 0.85 percent despite the MMI Fund's value falling well short of the 2 percent threshold it is required by law to maintain.

The Five Star Institute announced the addition Friday of Biniam T. Gebre, Acting Commissioner of the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), as a featured speaker at the Sixth Annual Five Star Government Forum on March 18 at the Newseum in Washington, D.C.

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reported Thursday that its Mortgage Credit Availability Index (MCAI), which analyzes data from AllRegs' Market Clarity, increased 1.8 percent to 117.8 last month. All of the component indices measured by MBA increased month-over-month, with the gauge of conventional loan availability climbing 3 percent and the government index rising 0.9 percent.

In its latest National Mortgage Risk Index (NMRI), the American Enterprise Institute's (AEI) International Center on Housing Risk estimated that 11.84 percent of agency purchase loans would be at risk of default should the economy see another crisis in the near future.

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reported Wednesday that mortgage application volumes jumped by a seasonally adjusted 49.1 percent for the week ending January 9. The surge—the largest weekly increase since 2008, MBA said—followed a sharp drop in 2014's closing weeks.

The president reported in his speech that the housing market has not come all the way back yet and there is still work to be done. But according to one analyst, the president may have overestimated how far the housing market has come back and the administration's role in the recovery.

Citing concerns about the Federal Housing Administration's (FHA) low capital reserve ratio and its 2013 bailout, senators Bob Corker (R-Tennessee) and David Vitter (R-Louisiana) are calling on the Obama administration to reconsider its plan to cut FHA's annual mortgage insurance premium by half a percentage point.

In a mortgagee letter issued Friday, HUD announced that the reduction in annual premiums—which will bring premiums down to 0.85 percent on most FHA loans—will affect mortgages with case numbers assigned on or after January 26.

With 2015 less than two weeks underway, Fitch Ratings is the latest forecaster predicting great things for housing in the coming year. However, unlike other commentators, whose projections were based on encouraging market trends, the ratings agency says it's a combination of recent government actions that reinforces its view.

December's job gain was close to 2014's average monthly increase, and 2014 was the best year of job growth in the United States since 1999. According to Fannie Mae Chief Economist Doug Duncan, the underlying data may not be so encouraging for the housing market, however.