Shaun Donovan

Reports that FHA may be the next ’sub-prime’ implosion have been swirling for some time now. The reason is that an FHA loan is simply a mortgage that is insured by HUD against default, to protect the lender, and the reserve insurance funds are dwindling. And if HUD were to run out of money to insure these loans, then FHA lending would die. That scenario is unlikely to happen, which was attested to by HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan yesterday before the House Committee on Financial Services. However, what it does mean is changes, and possibly BIG changes are in the works for FHA lenders. ... Read Full Story

WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan said the administration is looking at a 25-year-old Pennsylvania program as one of the models it might apply toward helping unemployed homeowners avoid foreclosure. Read Full Story

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A pair of House Republicans on Wednesday warned the Obama administration that Congress does not have the appetite for a bailout of the financially strapped Federal Housing Administration. "If not addressed promptly, problems at the FHA may result in yet another massive taxpayer-funded bailout that this country cannot afford and which the American people will not accept," wrote Republicans Darrell Issa of California and Spencer Bachus of Alabama in a letter, released Wednesday, to Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan. The FHA, a division of HUD, announced in September that its capital reserve ratio is expected to fall below the ... Read Full Story

New York lawmakers brought the nation's top housing official through some of Buffalo's most forlorn neighborhoods Friday, seeking support for a $300 million program to help cities with vast stocks of vacant housing that predate the nation's foreclosure crisis. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan stopped short of endorsing the Community Regeneration, Sustainability and Innovation Act introduced by Sen. Charles Schumer and U.S. Rep. Brian Higgins, but indicated his agency was on board with a key provision to give individual cities a say in how to use federal money to combat blight. "We need to have the flexibility across our programs to support ... Read Full Story

Key congressional leaders want to extend the tax credit for first-time homebuyers beyond its scheduled end-of-November expiration despite complaints of fraud and Obama administration concerns about the costs. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan says the administration is not sold on the idea. For the past several weeks, Obama administration officials have been talking about possibly extending the credit to help spur the economy and create jobs. But at a congressional hearing Tuesday, Donovan said the administration needs better cost estimates. "To truly understand the costs, we will not know that until Americans have filed their tax returns," Donovan told the Senate Banking ... Read Full Story