Home equity products enable homeowners to unlock the value of their homes through a variety of financing contracts. Each product has distinct features, benefits, and risks. In this post, we compare and contrast common home equity products, including home equity lines of credit (HELOC), closed-end home equity loans (HEL), reverse mortgages, and home equity agreements
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) published a request for information (RFI) on October 2, 2025 titled “Future of the HECM and HMBS Programs and Opportunities for Innovation in Accessing Home Equity.” The title alone underscores the RFI’s importance for all participants in HUD’s Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) program
At the tail end of the Biden administration, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) published Mortgagee Letter 2025-06, which was tilted Updates to Servicing, Loss Mitigation, and Claims. The 251-page mortgagee letter outlines various changes to FHA’s servicing requirements in Handbook 4000.1, such as updated requirements for forbearances and extending the availability of
On March 19, 2025, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) issued Mortgagee Letter (ML) 2025-08 titled “Rescinding Multiple Appraisal Policy Related Mortgagee Letters.” As the title suggests, FHA rescinded three mortgagee letters relating to Appraisal Fair Housing Compliance and Appraisal Review and Reconsideration. While this is a major change in how appraisals will be handled under
On January 7, 2025, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) officially revised its Defect Taxonomy (Final Defect Taxonomy) with the publication of Mortgagee Letter (ML) 2025-01 and the related attachment detailing those changes. The changes are effective as of January 15, 2025, and will be implemented in Appendix 8.0 of FHA Handbook 4000.1 at a later
On December 19, 2024, the Fair Housing Administration (FHA) and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) published a draft Mortgagee Letter proposing a new Optional Reimbursement Claim Alternative (ORCA) program. ORCA is intended to allow mortgagees to seek reimbursement for property tax and insurance payments the mortgagee advances on behalf of forward
On August 6, 2024, in Mortgagee Letter (ML) 2024-16, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) announced an extension for the implementation of recent Appraisal Review and Reconsideration of Value (ROV) guidelines through and to October 31, 2024. The guidelines, further detailed in our blog post “FHA Announces New Guidelines Allowing Borrowers to Challenge Appraisals
Over the past month, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) has enacted and proposed several changes to its Defect Taxonomy. The Defect Taxonomy is contained in Appendix 8 to FHA Handbook 4000.1. The Defect Taxonomy was originally designed to allow FHA to characterize underwriting related errors in FHA mortgages. Now, if these recent changes are
Following a long wait, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) published a revised version of the Fair Housing Administration’s (FHA) handbook governing the origination and servicing of FHA loan products, including Home Equity Conversion Mortgages (HECMs, which are more commonly known as “reverse mortgages”). While the revisions in the new handbook are
On May 1, 2024, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) issued Mortgagee Letter (ML) 2024-07 titled “Appraisal Review and Reconsideration of Value Updates,” which enhances the agency’s current policy on home valuations. ML 2024-07 underscores FHA’s ongoing commitment to addressing appraisal bias, which directly aligns with the Interagency Task Force on Property Appraisal and Valuation Equity’s