Redlining Isn’t What it Used To Be
Discrimination and Bias in Residential Lending
Consumer Finance Monitor Podcast Episode: Foreclosing on “Zombie” Mortgages: What Lenders and Servicers Should Know
Life After Love Gone Wrong Podcast: Season 3, Episode 2 - Mortgage Mastery: Charting a Financial Course Post-Divorce
Law Brief®: Robert Wolf, Alexander Tiktin and Richard Schoenstein Discuss the Continuing Foreclosure/Eviction Moratorium
Bar Exam Toolbox Podcast Episode 146: Listen and Learn -- Mortgages and Priority
Credit Eco to Go Podcast - Not a Normal Mortgage Crisis: How the Mortgage Industry Weathered the Pandemic
Not a Normal Mortgage Crisis: How the Mortgage Industry Weathered the Pandemic
In The Cross-Hairs? Protecting Your Company Against Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Investigations and Investors' Mortgage Buyback Claims
Condo Adviser: What is 'FHA approved,' exactly?
Bill on Bankruptcy: Trustees Sleep Easy after High Court Ruling
Bill on Bankruptcy: Sigmund Freud, Marx Brothers, Bernie Madoff
Critical Mortgage Regulatory Updates by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for 2013 and 2014
Bill on Bankruptcy: Delaware to Continue Dominating Bankruptcy
What’s Next from the CFPB
Former Congressman Steve Bartlett Joins the LEVICK Team
The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) recently charged multiple entities with housing discrimination based on an asserted biased appraisal and denial of a mortgage refinance loan application based on the...more
On July 15, HUD released a charge of discrimination on behalf of a complainant against several respondents, including a mortgage lender and its agent (an appraisal management company), for allegedly discriminating against the...more
The Fair Housing Act Applies to Residential Real Estate Appraisals - The Fair Housing Act (FHA) was passed in 1968 to prohibit housing discrimination based on race, color, religion, and national origin. Since then, the...more
Recently, HUD issued Mortgagee Letter 2024-12, updating its regulations to redefine Government-Sponsored Enterprises (GSEs) as separate from other governmental institutions with respect to FHA requirements for specific loan...more
On May 23, 2024, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (“HUD”) issued requirements, effective immediately, for all FHA-approved mortgagees to report certain cyber incidents to HUD within 12 hours of detection....more
In Mortgagee Letter 2024-10, FHA announced a requirement for FHA approved lenders to notify the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) of Significant Cybersecurity Incidents. The Mortgagee Letter, which is...more
What Happened? Both the FHA and VA have established new loss mitigation options to provide payment reduction to delinquent borrowers. On February 21, 2024, the Federal Housing Administration (“FHA”) within the U.S....more
On March 11, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Marcia L. Fudge announced her resignation and will transition to life as a private citizen. Her statement highlighted her five decades of public service, including as a...more
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) recently issued a press release announcing a 2023 update to its Equity Action Plan. The Equity Action Plan is part of HUD’s efforts to implement President Biden’s...more
Recently, my son took an online college course about social justice in the as-built environment. One topic in the class was redlining – a practice that limited the availability of affordable home loans for minorities. ...more
Last week, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) revised multiple regulations and requirements related to servicing Home Equity Conversion Mortgages (HECMs, more commonly known as “reverse mortgages”), with...more
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) recently announced the 2024 loan limits for FHA insured forward mortgage loans and FHA insured Home Equity Conversion Mortgages (HECMs). The announcements were made...more
A&B Abstract: On October 24, 2023, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (“HUD”) published, for public comment, a Federal Register Notice (“Proposed Notice”) to implement changes to the Federal housing...more
On May 31, 2023, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) published a draft Mortgagee Letter (ML) titled “Proposed Payment Supplement Partial Claim.” The draft ML proposes use of available partial claims funds to create a new...more
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) recently announced in Mortgagee Letter 2023.13 that lenders must use the Supplemental Consumer Information Form (SCIF) of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in connection...more
On June 13, HUD announced a Charge of Discrimination against several entities and individuals accused of allegedly violating the Fair Housing Act by discriminating against New York City homeowners on the basis of race, color,...more
Affirming its commitment to the senior citizen population, on May 17, 2023, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) issued Mortgagee Letter 2023-10, implementing amendments to the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM)...more
On March 17, HUD announced the submission of a final rule—Reinstatement of HUD’s Discriminatory Effects Standard—which would rescind the agency’s 2020 regulation governing Fair Housing Act (FHA or the Act) disparate impact...more
On February 14, CFPB Fair Lending Director Patrice Ficklin joined senior leaders from the FDIC, HUD, NCUA, Federal Reserve Board, DOJ, OCC, and FHFA in submitting a joint letter to The Appraisal Foundation (TAF) urging the...more
In Mortgagee Letter 2023-01, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) addressed the use of the revised Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac single-family loan documents with FHA Title II forward mortgage loans. As...more
On January 12, HUD Secretary Marcia L. Fudge announced at a Brookings Institute event that HUD is creating a process that people seeking FHA financing can use to request a review of their appraisal if they believe the results...more
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) recently issued a draft Mortgagee Letter on reconsideration of value (ROV) policies in connection with appraisals for FHA insured mortgage loans. The draft Mortgagee...more
Effective December 21, 2022, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) amended its regulation at 24 C.F.R. § 203.16a to allow FHA borrowers to purchase private flood insurance for properties located in Special Flood Hazard...more
In Mortgagee Letter 2022-22 dated December 15, 2022, the FHA announced updates to its Single Family Housing Policy Handbook (HUD Handbook 4000.1) that modifies its policies governing conflicts of interest and dual employment....more
A&B ABstract: Mortgage assumptions – where a buyer assumes the existing mortgage loan of a seller – have fluctuated in popularity since the 1980s....more