The head of the Federal Housing Administration downplayed a coming budget estimate that is expected to show the agency will need taxpayer aid for the first time since it was founded in the 1930s.
FHA could avoid taking Treasury aid even if the budget President Barack Obama releases next month shows it has a shortfall, FHA Commissioner Carol Galante said in remarks prepared for a hearing of the House Financial Services Committee today.
FHA will take additional steps this year to avoid foreclosures on loans that have defaulted and raise the fees it charges borrowers to insure their loans against default, Galante said. Those and other measures could be enough to offset any shortfall the budget shows, she said. FHA has until Sept. 30 to determine whether it needs aid.
"The ultimate need will be borne out in the actual performance of the FHA single-family program over the course of the fiscal year, and will be impacted by the steps FHA takes over the course of the year to increase revenue or reduce losses," Galante said.
An independent actuary said in November that FHA could need a subsidy of as much as $16.3 billion due to defaults on loans it insured as the housing market crashed. The agency is required to keep enough funds on hand to cover all projected future losses. The president's budget will contain an updated estimate.
Galante's testimony comes as the Republican-led House is ramping up scrutiny of the government-run mortgage insurer, which backs $1.1 trillion worth of home loans, which almost quadrupled its share of insured loans from 4 percent in 2007 to more than 15 percent.
Lawmakers from both parties have been anticipating the budget estimate for FHA as they gauge whether they should step in with legislation that would shrink the agency's market share and shore up its bottom line.
"We shouldn't shut down the FHA," Texas Republican Jeb Hensarling, who chairs the committee, said in an interview on CNBC yesterday. "But at the same time, we shouldn't be loaning money to people to buy homes who can't afford to keep them. I mean, that's just devastating to American families."
Galante, testifying before Congress for the first time since she was confirmed to her post in December, urged lawmakers to move forward with a bill that passed the House with bipartisan support last year but didn't get through the Senate. That measure would have given FHA more authority to weed out bad actors among the lenders who issue loans it insures, among other things.
Republicans say they want to go further, perhaps changing the agency's accounting methods and requiring higher down payments on FHA-insured loans. The agency currently insures mortgages with down payments as low as 3.5 percent for certain borrowers.
