HUD Announces 14 Regulatory Changes to Help Lower Housing Costs

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced 14 policy changes to its Federal Housing Administration (FHA) Single Family mortgage insurance program aimed at lowering costs, easing regulatory burdens, and improving affordability for Americans using FHA-insured mortgages.

The updates remove outdated requirements, cut administrative burdens, and make FHA financing more efficient for home buyers and lenders. The changes affect FHA policies from mortgage origination through servicing and quality control, including:

• Streamlining Appraisal Field Review Requirements, reducing quality control requirements that average $425 per field review. The change is expected to save industry partners about $3.3 million annually while better aligning FHA with other programs.
  
  
• Expanding Flexibility under the Limited 203(k) Rehabilitation Mortgage Insurance Program, by allowing more contractor draw requests and making home rehabilitation projects easier to complete.
  
  
• Modernizing FHA Mortgagee Approval and Quality Control, including a permanent exemption for early payment defaults caused by natural disasters from required quality control review samples. This will help reduce mortgage costs, expand borrower access, and support smaller lenders’ participation in the FHA program.
  
  
• Eliminating the Duplicative Requirement for Lenders to Use the Important Notice to Homebuyers Form 92900-B, simplifying the closing process.
  
  
• Clarifying Loss Mitigation Requirements Governing Trial Payment Plans, to protect the FHA Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund, prevent abuse, and ensure proactive borrowers are not penalized.