Federal Housing Administration

The Obama administration's new plan to stimulate refinancings of FHA mortgages is likely to help large numbers of homeowners — even those who are deeply underwater — cut their monthly costs by switching to a loan with a rate below 4%. Here's a quick overview of the "streamline refi" program and what it will take for you to qualify. First, the baseline criteria: Your current home loan must be FHA-insured and must have been put on the Federal Housing Administration's books no later than May 31, 2009.

The Obama administration's new plan to stimulate refinancings of FHA mortgages is likely to help large numbers of homeowners — even those who are deeply underwater — cut their monthly costs by switching to a loan with a rate below 4%. Here's a quick overview of the "streamline refi" program and what it will take for you to qualify. First, the baseline criteria: Your current home loan must be FHA-insured and must have been put on the Federal Housing Administration's books no later than May 31, 2009.

Distancing himself from Republicans on housing issues, President Obama pitched a $5-billion to $10-billion plan to help a key segment of struggling homeowners — those still making monthly payments, but on underwater mortgages. Obama proposed Wednesday to help about 3.5 million people with good credit who are unable to refinance at historically low rates because their homes are worth less than their mortgages. He argued that those homeowners — and the country — couldn't afford to let the housing market bottom out, as many Republicans, including presidential candidate Mitt Romney, have advocated.

Citigroup Inc. is paying $158 million to settle accusations that it took advantage of a federal mortgage insurance program. In a settlement with the Justice Department, Citi admitted that it provided misleading information about the quality of its mortgages to a federal insurance program run by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The government provided backing for the mortgages and ended up losing millions when the borrowers defaulted. In the complaint filed Wednesday as part of the settlement, the U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan said CitiMortgage violated the rules of the Federal Housing Administration insurance program for six years until it was subpoenaed in July.

Homeowners who trade in loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration could be in for a big payday, and not just in the form of a lower interest rate and correspondingly lower payments. If your old FHA loan is less than 3 years old, you will be getting back some of the insurance premium you paid at closing. But only if you take out another government-insured mortgage. If you refinance into any other type of loan ? one guaranteed by a private insurer, for example, or perhaps a conventional mortgage without any coverage at all ?

Could the federal government's booming FHA mortgage program be forcing homeowners to pay tens of millions of dollars of extra interest charges when they sell their houses or refinance their loans? Critics say yes. The government says the critics aren't providing the full picture. Those critics include Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin (D-Md.), who is sponsoring legislation that would prohibit Federal Housing Administration lenders from collecting a full month's worth of interest from sellers and refinancers who pay off their mortgages — close escrow — before the final day of the month.

A task force advised the White House on Friday against selling the Federal Housing Administration, which provides mortgage assistance to millions of Americans. "The task force believes that an outright sale of the FHA would be unlikely to attract buyers at a price the government would find adequate or to satisfy other desirable sale considerations," the study group, sponsored by the Housing and Urban Development Department, said in a report.

The Federal Housing Administration--crushed by the combined impact of mounting home mortgage defaults in the Southwest, massive defaults by a handful of mortgage co-insurance companies and a portfolio of soured hospital loans--lost $4.2 billion last year and has a deficit of $2.9 billion, the General Accounting Office said Wednesday. Raising the specter of another multibillion-dollar taxpayer bailout on the heels of the savings and loan crisis, Comptroller General Charles A.

The federal government Monday announced that it is dramatically expanding a pilot program that enables elderly homeowners to meet living expenses or get extra cash by tapping the equity in their house through a so-called reverse mortgage. Effective immediately, the mortgages are being offered by thousands of lenders authorized to make Federal Housing Administration-insured loans.

Citigroup Inc. is paying $158 million to settle accusations that it took advantage of a federal mortgage insurance program. In a settlement with the Justice Department, Citi admitted that it provided misleading information about the quality of its mortgages to a federal insurance program run by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The government provided backing for the mortgages and ended up losing millions when the borrowers defaulted. In the complaint filed Wednesday as part of the settlement, the U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan said CitiMortgage violated the rules of the Federal Housing Administration insurance program for six years until it was subpoenaed in July.

There might yet be another casualty in the real estate market: the Federal Housing Administration. With home prices still seeking their bottom, the federal agency that insures more than $1 trillion in mortgages faces a nearly 50% chance that it could need a taxpayer bailout next year, according to a government report released Tuesday. If the housing market fails to rebound next year, the FHA would need as much as $43 billion from the U.S. Treasury to stay afloat, the report said.

Could the federal government's booming FHA mortgage program be forcing homeowners to pay tens of millions of dollars of extra interest charges when they sell their houses or refinance their loans? Critics say yes. The government says the critics aren't providing the full picture. Those critics include Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin (D-Md.), who is sponsoring legislation that would prohibit Federal Housing Administration lenders from collecting a full month's worth of interest from sellers and refinancers who pay off their mortgages — close escrow — before the final day of the month.

Homeowners who trade in loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration could be in for a big payday, and not just in the form of a lower interest rate and correspondingly lower payments. If your old FHA loan is less than 3 years old, you will be getting back some of the insurance premium you paid at closing. But only if you take out another government-insured mortgage. If you refinance into any other type of loan ? one guaranteed by a private insurer, for example, or perhaps a conventional mortgage without any coverage at all ?

Condominium owners who are trying to sell in today's agonizingly slow housing market should make sure that their community is on the Federal Housing Administration's approved list. Ditto for someone who is thinking about refinancing a condo. Under a little-noticed edict put in place in December, the FHA is no longer approving mortgages on condominium units on a spot, loan-by-loan basis. Now the entire project must be cleared by the agency before a buyer can purchase a unit in the community with a government-insured mortgage or an owner can trade in his loan for a less expensive one backed by the FHA. That's important because FHA financing is being used more frequently today than at practically any other time in the agency's 76-year history.

Call it three birds with one stone: The federal government hopes simultaneously to help low-down-payment home buyers, investors who fix up foreclosures, and local communities burdened with too many bank-owned and foreclosed homes -- all with one potentially far-reaching policy change. The Federal Housing Administration is revising its long-standing "anti-flipping" rule starting Monday and just might score a hit with all three target groups. For years the FHA has had a strict prohibition: It wouldn't insure a mortgage on a house whose seller had owned it less than 90 days.

The Federal Housing Administration will raise mortgage insurance premiums, update requirements for so-called FICO credit scores and down payments for new home buyers and take other measures designed to shore up the agency's low capital reserves. The FHA, which insures mortgages, also will reduce allowable seller concessions to 3% from 6% and institute a number of measures to increase lender enforcement, the agency is expected to announce today. The proposals were outlined last month by U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan.

* Appraiser Watch, HUD's latest initiative to protect home buyers from predatory lenders and practices, became fully operational last week. It will help the Federal Housing Administration to better identify appraisers who place homeowners at risk for foreclosure because of inflated valuations. * Citigroup Inc. and Fannie Mae will provide $100 billion in mortgage financing through the end of the decade for low-income families.

Government officials have subpoenaed documents from 15 lenders whose Federal Housing Administration-backed loans have high default rates, including a failed Missouri bank that was owned by an Orange County financial firm. Many of the FHA-backed loans issued by the lenders went bad almost immediately, said Kenneth M. Donohue, inspector general for the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which includes the FHA. At a news conference Tuesday, he called the action a review that was not yet an investigation.

Reporting from Los Angeles and Washington Alejandro Lazo -- Thousands of Southern California home buyers, and millions nationwide, will have to come up with more cash and reach higher minimum credit scores to get a government-backed mortgage under changes unveiled by the Federal Housing Administration. Some loans might require more than the current 3.5% minimum down payment, but the Obama administration is resisting calls for an across-the-board hike. Instead, it is looking at other ways to increase the amount of cash at closing, such as requiring borrowers to pay more of their mortgage insurance premiums up front.