Trump Reverses Obama's Mortgage Fee Cuts on First Day

(RECAP: Soon after Donald Trump was sworn in as president, his administration undid one of Barack Obama’s last-minute economic-policy actions: a mortgage-fee cut under a government program that’s well loved with first-time home buyers and low-income borrowers. The new administration on Friday said it’s canceling a reduction in the FHA’s annual fee for most borrowers. The cut would have reduced the annual premium for someone borrowing $200,000 by $500 in the first year. The reversal comes after Trump’s team criticized the Obama administration for adopting new policies as it prepared to leave office. Last week, Obama’s HUD secretary, Julian Castro, said the FHA would cut its fees. The administration didn’t consult Trump’s team before the announcement. Republicans have argued in the past that reductions place taxpayers at risk by lowering the funds the FHA has to deal with mortgage defaults.)

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$30 million Golden Peanut project fizzles in downtown Suffolk

(RECAP: A Richmond-based development company known for historic restoration has pulled the plug on a plotted $30 million project in downtown Suffolk. Tom Dickey, principal of The Monument Cos., said in an email Friday that the choice was a result of uncertainty about tax credits on which the company relies. It’s unclear whether the company will revisit the project. Over the course of the last six months, he wrote, a General Assembly joint subcommittee on taxes discussed implementing caps on the state Historic Rehabilitation Tax Credit program. The program, he said, spurs private investment in rural and urban localities across Virginia. Last spring, The Monument Cos. and Sensei Development proposed building at least 233 loft-style apartments, plus office and retail space on the site of a former peanut processing facility known as the Golden Peanut. It was to be built in phases over at least four years.)

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Nonbanks dominate FHA-backed mortgages

(RECAP: Nonbank’s share of Federal Housing Administration-backed mortgages crossed $1 trillion for the first time in November 2016, according to an article in The Wall Street Journal. The news, while positive for nonbanks, is causing some in the industry to question the consequences nonbanks face if the industry undergoes any future stress. A study from 2015 by a senior fellow and a researcher at the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government at Harvard’s Kennedy School posted that the nonbank market share of agency buy mortgage originations was growing at an astronomical pace, moving from 27% in mid-2012 to 48% in late 2014. The article gave an update on the situation, stating that in the first three quarters of 2016, banks accounted for 9% of mortgage dollars originated by the FHA’s top 50 lenders, versus 62% for all of 2010.)

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