Reverse mortgage giant American Advisors Group’s recent announcement that it’s officially a “product-agnostic” company was sure to prick up the ears of entrepreneurial-minded reverse mortgage originators around the country, wondering what the change means for them. AAG’s new business model includes a new forward lending division and real estate brokerage. The Orange, Calif.-based firm’s reworked marketing […]

The Department of Housing and Urban Development late last week filed a formal housing discrimination complaint against Facebook, accusing the social networking giant of allowing companies to exclude certain groups of people from seeing their advertisements. HUD says Facebook violated the Fair Housing Act when it gave advertisers a host of filtering options based on […]

The Federal Housing Administration last week offered another extension on the foreclosure moratorium instituted in the wake of last summer’s hurricanes. Affected borrowers in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands now have until September 15 to work out any potential foreclosure issues surrounding their FHA-backed reverse mortgage loans before the process begins again. Foreclosures […]

After teasing a new private reverse mortgage offering in the spring, Longbridge Financial on Monday formally announced its Platinum mortgage program, marking the latest in a string of new proprietary products hitting the market this year. With the Platinum, the Mahwah, N.J.-based Longbridge seeks to tap into a wider range of potential borrowers than the […]

The reverse mortgage industry’s leading volume tracker says the decline in originations may have reached bottom as the trend lines follow a similar pattern seen after other key program changes. Home Equity Conversion Mortgage endorsements ticked up slightly among Federal Housing Administration-approved lenders in July, rising 2.5% to reach 2,908 for the month according to […]

Earlier this month, new Federal Housing Administration commissioner Brian Montgomery laid the blame for troubles in the reverse mortgage industry on back-end issues at his own department. The new commissioner, confirmed in May, inherited a Home Equity Conversion Mortgage program that caused a $14.5 billion drag on the Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund (MMIF), according to […]

After substantial Home Equity Conversion Mortgage program changes implemented last year, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) doing “triage” to assess, manage and improve the agency’s reverse mortgage loan portfolio. Having held roughly a month at the helm of the FHA, Commissioner Brian Montgomery says the agency is strongly focused on maintaining the health of the […]