FHA's Official FY 2011 Financial Report Issued.

HUD PR is HERE.  

HUD report to Congress is HERE.

More detail (links not in HUD PR)

• Actuarial review, excluding HECM loans, is HERE.
• The HECM Actuarial Review is HERE. [Section 2, the "Findings" Section, appears to be missing from this file; I have alerted HUD HQS staff].

From HUD's PR:

...barring a further significant downturn in home prices, the MMI Fund will start to rebuild capital in 2012, and return to a level of two percent by 2014 – outpacing last year’s prediction....The independent actuarial reviews of the MMI Fund estimate FHA’s capital reserve ratio to be 0.24 percent of total insurance-in-force this year, falling from 0.50 percent in 2010. FHA’s total liquid assets (cash plus investments) grew by $800 million since last year, to $33.7 billion. That amount is $1.9 billion higher than at the end of FY 2009, and is also $7.7 billion higher than was predicted last year by the independent actuaries. At the same time, the economic net worth of the Fund fell by $2.1 billion this year, from $4.7 billion to $2.6 billion, as FHA continued to build loss reserves to prepare for greater claims in the coming years.

 Losses on loans insured through the first quarter of fiscal year 2009 continue to place a significant strain on the Fund and are expected to reach $26 billion within a few more years. Though they were prohibited in 2009, the ongoing effect of so-called “seller-funded downpayment assistance loans” is still significant. The net expected cost of those loans, as projected by the independent actuaries, grew by $1.8 billion over the past year to $14.1 billion. Conversely, the actuaries found that the FY2010 and FY2011 books are expected to be very profitable, providing significant net revenues to offset losses on earlier books. Loans insured to-date under the Obama Administration are providing $18 billion in economic value for the MMI Fund. Under the base-case forecast used by the independent actuaries, the FY 2012 book will add an additional $9 billion in economic value to the Fund.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

January 2011 Oregon HECM Inventory: Approaching 15,000 Loans; $3.295 Billion.

I have created a first ever Excel file HERE that includes a historical inventory, and status of, ALL HUD/FHA Oregon HECM loans that had been endorsed in Oregon as of January 2011. (See Excel downloading tip below).  

A PDF summary by Oregon county that I constructed showing loan status is HERE.

The Excel file includes the inventory data, a county level status summary sheet, a pivot table, and a lookup sheet that I created and used to populate status names for codes in several select fields:

1. A case status (cs_sts) field
2. A county name field
3. A gender field
4. A loan type field 

A HUD data dictionary for all the fields in the database is HERE. 

I highly recommend reviewing the data dictionary and using the Pivot table to extract detailed information; some examples of what is available are included in observations below.

Some observations:

1. As of January 2011, the inventory of HECM loans in Oregon was 14,697. With 699 Oregon HECM loans endorsed from Jan-June 2011 [see FHA 6 month table I previously constructed and posted HERE], the current historical HECM inventory should now exceed 15,000 loans.
2. Of the inventory of 14,697 loans, 249 were either assigned to HUD, or had a shortfall claim determination, or had been terminated after assignment. Those status categories represent 1.7% of all Oregon HUD HECM loans. 
3. The 5 county Portland metro area had 39% of all HECM loans. 
4. Using the pivot table I calculate that 41% of HECM loans were made to couples. Interestingly, twice as many were made to a single woman (35%) than were made to a single man. (17%). 
5. Using the pivot table I calculate that the sum of the maximum claim amounts for HECM loan in Oregon as of January 2011 exceeded $3.295 Billion. Wells Fargo had the largest share of that inventory, at 18.2% /$599 million of the total maximum claim total.

Excel Downloading Tip:This workbook was created in Excel 2007/2010 format. Some users report they cannot directly view Excel files in this format from within their browser and/or that Excel files they save end up with a compressed .zip file extension.

My suggestion is to RIGHT CLICK and save the file to your PC. Then navigate to the file you downloaded and look at its file extension. IF it appears as .ZIP extension, change the .ZIP extension to an Excel 2007/2010 extension (.xlsx), and THEN open the file with Excel 2007/2010.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Reverse Mortgage Court Case Against HUD Dismissed.

Details from ReverseMortgageDaily are HERE.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Consumer Reports Reverse Mortgage Report Urges Caution, Greater Oversight.

LA Times news story is HERE.

Consumer Reports post about new study is HERE; study can be found HERE.

PR push back from reverse mortgage industry is HERE.

( A Heat Map, showing the state location of FHA reverse mortgages annually from 1990 to 2010 is HERE; roll over each state to see the count of mortgages for the year--hit the play button below the map and then pause to see counts for year of choice).

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

HUD/FHA Wasn't Tracking Property Tax/Insurance Defaults on Reverse Mortgages.

Thanks to story in Senior Housing News, HUD IG report is HERE. IG says:

In the event of foreclosure of the 7,673 loans for which HUD was aware and 12,958 loans of which it was not aware, HUD could lose an estimated $1.4 billion upon sale of the properties.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

FR Comments Sought: New HUD Survey of Consumer Protection Gaps for HECM Borrowers; We Have Background and Anticipated Question Answered.

Today's FR has Notice HERE. Any comments are due by August 3rd.

600 HECM borrowers will be surveyed by phone for this HERA required survey.

I have obtained from HUD the justification sent to OMB HERE (MS Word format); it includes background about why survey is needed, an outline of the types of questions to be asked, and the anticipated questions the survey will help answer. 

600 HECM borrowers will be surveyed by phone. 

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

70% YTD Increase in Oregon FHA SF Purchase Loans Helps Pump Total FHA Loan Volume to $22 Million Per Work Day.

I have prepared an Oregon statewide summary HERE of FHA single family loan volume for January and February, comparing loan volumes to the same period in CY 2009.

Observations:

• Actual closing dates for these Jan/Feb 2010 loans are likely from late last year--it takes some time to complete FHA insurance process on closed loans (but that lag is being reduced).
• Total FHA single family loans are up by 12% to 3,918. Total $$ for first two months of CY 2010 =$839 Million. (That's more than $22 million EACH work day [38 net workdays in Jan/Feb]).
  
• FHA purchase loan counts are up by 70% vs last year; loan purchase $$ are up by 67% because average purchase loan amounts have declined (and are now below $200k).
• HECM loan $$ are down by 37% or nearly $60 million; average loan amounts are down by more than $17,000.
• The count of HECM loans is down by 30%, likely because of lower loan to value limits for HECM loans.
• Refi loan volumes are down modestly, by 5%. I expect this decline may accelerate in the future.
  

Once March reports become available I will do a county quarterly breakout of CY 2010 FHA loans by county and loan type.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

HUD Final Rules on HECM Counselors Coming Tomorrow.

HUD will be publishing in tomorrow's Federal Register a final rule titled Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) Counseling Standardization and Roster.

The advance copy of tomorrow's Federal Register publication is HERE.

"This final rule amends HUD’s HECM program regulations by establishing testing standards to qualify individuals as HECM counselors eligible to provide HECM counseling to prospective HECM borrowers. The rule also establishes a HECM Counseling Roster (Roster) of eligible HECM counselors and provides for their removal for cause."

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

WSJ Story on FHA Reverse Mortgages.

HERE.

HUD Seeking $800 Million for FHA: But Says it's For Losses on Reverse Mortgages.

Interesting WaPo story HERE.

I had been wondering what happened when the "E" was diminished in the HECM (Home Equity Conversion Mortgage) program.

Likely will be more to come once full budget documents and appropriations hearings begin.

Editorial Comment: As someone only a few months away from being able to qualify for a HECM loan, I just wonder: In this budget environment, do seniors really need another [indirect] subsidy for seniors, especially when the higher the HECM loan value, the higher the subsidy?

FHA HECM Mortgage Limit Now $625,500.

FHA Home Equity Conversion Mortgage limit has been raised nationally to $625,500. [Was part of recovery bill].

(You can find FHA/Fannie/Freddie mortgage limits for any area of the country for other loan programs by using FHA Mortgage link in right side of the blog).

"No One is Making/Getting Home Loans"? NOT Accurate--FHA Home Loans in Oregon in FY '08 Were Nearly $3 Billion.

With credit markets in disarray, it's easy to overlook the home mortgage lending that is quietly taking place.

With my recent post on HECM loans now completed, I thought it might be interesting to add all FHA home loan types (purchase, refinance, and HECM's) into a single table by county to show the number and dollars of FHA lending that took place in Oregon during [federal] FY 2008, which just ended in September.

Even as a long time FHA advocate, I admit that I was blow away at the FY 2008 Oregon FHA loan volume:

• FHA Single Family loan volume was just a few million shy of reaching $3 Billion;
• During FY 2008 FHA helped more than 14,000 Oregon families to:

1. Purchase homes (38% of total FHA loans),or
   
2. Refinance their existing loans (44% of total FHA loans)[Many of these loans were refinances of conventional/subprime ARM loans], or
3. Stay in their homes through the FHA reverse equity/ HECM loan program (18% of total FHA loans) for senior citizens.

The table in the PDF file HERE provides the county level details, and the graph on the second page illustrates the accelerating monthly volume of FHA loans by loan purpose from last October though September of this year.

A couple of additional notes:

1. Adding monthly loan numbers found in the graph, total Oregon FHA loan volume during September 2008 of1,940 loans was an increase of 278% from the total of 513 FHA loans made during October 2007.
2. Adding total loan numbers from the far left column of the table, the 3 county Portland Metro area accounted for a little more than 1/3rd of all FHA loans in Oregon during FY 2008 (5,343/14,244)=38%.

Oregon FHA HECM/ Reverse Equity Loans Top $572 Million in FY 2008.

I have just prepared the first ever summary of HECM loans in Oregon. It covers[federal] FY 2008, from October 2007 to September 2008.

The report HERE includes loan counts and $$ for the state as a whole, by county, and also by individual lender.

Highlights:

• 2,460 FHA HECM loans were made.
• Total loans $$ (maximum claim amounts) exceeded $572 million.
• 2/3rds of all Oregon FHA HECM loans were made OUTSIDE of the 3 county Portland Metro area (Clackamas, Multnomah, Washington).
  
• While there were 159 different lenders who made FHA HECM loans, the top 10 lenders accounted for more than 51% of the loan activity, and the top 25 accounted for 74% of HECM loans made.

Oregon HECM Loan Level Data Example: Lenders with More than 100 HECM Loans in Last Year.

UPDATED post to add note at bottom that alerts that Excel 2007 required to manipulate data in Excel file; also included link to download compatibility pack from Microsoft to allow viewing of file in earlier version of Microsoft Excel.

I went back and found additional HECM data available on the HUD Neighborhood Watch website. (My earlier post on Oregon HUD/FHA HECM data now available is HERE).

To illustrate the kind of HECM data available HERE is a new Excel worksheet with HUD/FHA HECM loan level data for all lenders with more than 100 loans from April 1,2007-March 31, 2008 (This includes ALL Oregon cities (not just MSA's). The six lenders with more than 100 loans during this period accounted for about half of all 2,306 HUD/FHA HECM loans endorsed in Oregon.

The first worksheet in the Excel workbook is a pivot table which shows loan counts by city. If you double click the "count" number in the second column, a new worksheet is created showing the loan level detail for all loans in that city, including interest rate, and the value range of the loan.

The last worksheet in the Excel workbook is a summary worksheet (no loan level data available) that shows the total loans by lender for the one year April 07-March 08 period).

NOTE: To manipulate data in file you need Excel Office 2007. If you use an earlier version of Excel you MAY be able to use the free MS compatibility pack to view this document. More information on the compatibility pack from MS is HERE.

Most Exstensive Oregon HECM Lender/MSA Activity Report Now Available in Excel.

This morning I put together the most detailed report on HUD Home Equity Conversion Mortgage [HECM] ,aka 'reverse mortgage", activity in Oregon yet released to the public The report shows HECM loan activity sorted by MSA and lender and by status of the HECM loan and covers 3 years from March 2005-March 2008. You can download my MS Excel report HERE.

While I could claim compiling the report was rocket science, it was a really a matter of going to the HUD Neighborhood Watch website HERE and using newly available nationwide HECM data to construct a custom report for Oregon. Here's how to do it yourself in the future: After getting to this site look for the Analysis tab at the top and use the pull down to select HECM Activity to construct your own custom reports. (Look for the download in Excel tab once you have constructed your report and the data is returned). Definitions for column headings, etc are also available from this site. My report covers three years from March 2005-March 2008 and you can find it as an MS Excel file.

If you construct your own custom HECM report that you think is worth sharing with others, please feel free to post a comment on this post with a link to your report.