FHA

Mortgage refinance applications reached their highest level in three years as interest rates plunged last week in the aftermath of the Federal Open Market Committee's March meeting.

The 2020 budget would add the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and FSOC to congressional appropriations, charge lenders for FHA upgrades and require universities to have skin in the game on student loans.

The state's tougher oversight has stripped Property Assessed Clean Energy of its go-to project financing status among contractors. That shift may result in adverse selection.

Many federal agencies have been closed for more than three weeks, making it the longest shutdown in U.S. history. With no end in sight, here's how it's affecting banks, credit unions and mortgage lenders.

A lapse in rental-assistance funding, an understaffed FHA and other effects of the government shutdown are causing real harm to families, said the chair of the House Financial Services Committee.

As the government shutdown enters its third week, mortgage servicers are activating the response plans they normally use during hurricanes and wildfires to assist federal workers who may have trouble paying their mortgages.

Borrowers and financial institutions may be feeling the strain from reduced operations at the FHA and IRS, which has suspended the release of certain income documentation during the budget impasse.

The Federal Housing Administration's risk-sharing program with the Federal Financing Bank began as a temporary fix, but the agency is exploring how to make it more permanent.

The Trump administration should consider putting much of the subsidized mortgage lending done by the federal government under the government-sponsored enterprises to improve efficiency and transparency.

The $571 million transaction is backed by 915 loans originated from 2002 and 2008 that Waterfall Asset Management acquired over eight years.