October Surprise?

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Reverse Mortgage Reform Bill Passes, Awaits President’s Signature

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August or October Surprise? FHA may be able to use a scalpel rather than an axe when it comes to making reforms to the federally insured reverse mortgage or Home Equity Conversion Mortgage program. Late last Tuesday night the Senate granted the Federal Housing Administration the authority to make changes via mortgagee letter rather than the lengthly rule making process in passing House Resolution 2167, better known as the Reverse Mortgage Stabilization Act of 2013. Now the bill awaits the President’s signature. This is a pivotal development because without this authority harsher measures may have been employed to protect the American taxpayer and FHA’s mutual mortgage insurance fund from projected losses. It is expected that FHA will issue a mortgagee letter late this month outlining changes with an implementation date of October first. One HUD official said. We are looking at issuing ML by end of August and, ideally, October 1 for implementation.

Scalpel or an Axe? HECM Reforms.

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Without Congressional Authority FHA is Faced with Hard Choices

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Reverse Mortgage News

HUD would prefer to take the surgeon’s approach making fine tuned adjustments to the federally-insured reverse mortgage or HECM program. Presently it is left with the axe of harsh change unless Congress acts to give them the authority needed before the beginning of next fiscal year October 1st. The blunt approach was mentioned in a recent Senate Banking Committee hearing last week when Assistant Secretary of HUD Carol Galante reassured senators that they have no plans to bring back the standard fixed rate product.

Assistant Secretary Galante mentioned another option…more principal limit reductions across the board. “If we can’t make those nuanced changes, we are going to have to say the entire amount [that can be borrowed] is going to be just lowered for everybody across the board.”