On August 8, 2017, the New York Times published the article “2 Senators Question Effects of a Reverse Mortgage Proposal.” This article overviews a joint letter Senator Marco Rubio, R-FL, and Senator Catherine Cortez Masto, D-NV, sent to Ben Carson, the secretary of U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and Mick Mulvaney, director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

On January 9, 2017, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) published a final rule entitled Federal Housing Administration: Strengthening the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage Program. The final rule, which followed the May 19, 2016 proposed rule, takes effect September 19, 2017, and “codifies several significant changes to FHA’s Home Equity Conversion Mortgage program that were previously issued under the authority granted to HUD in the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 and the Reverse Mortgage Stabilization Act of 2013, and makes additional regulatory changes.”

Two of Summit’s housing experts—Dr. Edward Seiler and Andrew Netter—provide an overview of the additional regulatory changes contained in the final rule. If you're interested in HECM mortages more generally, read our blog series.

On November 15, 2016, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) published the Actuarial Review of the Federal Housing Administration Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund HECM Loans for Fiscal Year 2016. This review, prepared by HUD's independent actuary, contained several major methodological changes from the FY 2015 version of the review. Those changes resulted in the economic value of the HECM portion of the Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund (MMIF) falling to negative $7.7 billion from positive $6.8 billion the year before.