A financial columnist this week detailed the ways in which his opinion has evolved on reverse mortgages, moving from mild distrust to solid acceptance in certain scenarios. Writing for the San Antonio Express-News, columnist Michael Taylor noted that before digging into the products in response to a reader question, he hadn’t known much about them […]
Category: HUD
Reverse mortgage counselors have seen their demand fall in tandem with originations and endorsements, but many are already adapting their educational programs to include the wide array of private products entering the marketplace. Counselors logged 7,198 visits during July, according to data from Ibis Software Corporation — representing a sharp decline from the recent peaks […]
Reverse mortgage endorsements dipped 15.5% between May and June of this year, according to the most recent update from Reverse Market Insight — and the long-term arc of the post-October 2 recovery is following a well-worn pattern. Both Federal Housing Administration-approved lenders and their non-approved counterparts endorsed 2,833 loans in June, down from the 3,351 […]
Reverse mortgage software firm ReverseVision this week announced expanded services aimed at the burgeoning proprietary market. Under the San Diego-based ReverseVision’s new proprietary outreach initiative, lenders can submit a packet of information about their individual private loans. Within eight to 10 weeks, that product will be fully incorporated into the company’s RV Exchange loan origination […]
The Department of Housing and Urban Development last week took a swing at Facebook over the potential for discriminatory housing ads on its platform — and reverse mortgage originators and lenders would be wise to pay attention. “I think it’s a shot across the bow by HUD,” Jim Milano, a partner at the Washington, D.C. […]
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 […]
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 […]
A leading expert on reverse mortgages called on the Department of Housing and Urban Development to consider offering lower ongoing costs for borrowers who use the loans as part of an overarching retirement plan. Writing on his Mortgage Professor blog, Jack Guttentag asserts that Home Equity Conversion Mortgages used to boost a homeowner’s overall portfolio […]
When the Department of Housing and Urban Development cut principal limit factors for reverse mortgages last year, officials cited losses related to the program in the Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund as a primary motivator. But one prominent Home Equity Conversion Mortgage advocate says that in order to rectify some of HUD’s problems, the federal reverse mortgage […]