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The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) significantly revised the lending requirements under RESPA/Regulation X. These changes impact the Good Faith Estimate (GFE) and HUD Settlement Statements (HUD-1) and will be effective with new first mortgage applications taken on or after January 1, 2010.

In a nutshell, the biggest change is how the Good Faith Estimate is calculated and presented to the borrower. Prior to this new change, a Good Faith Estimate was provided to the borrower and gave an estimate of the charges and cost for the loan. Now, much of the cost on the new GFE is binding and/or have a tolerance of 10% in change from presentation of the GFE to the final closing cost when the loan is recorded.

In the past, the borrower paid for the charges that were not listed on the GFE or were under estimated when first presented. Now, since many cost items cannot be increased, the bank or mortgage brokerage will pay for what ever cost that was not listed or increased in the original Good Faith Estimate.

The intent of these new changes are for the benefit of the borrower. Now the banks and mortgage brokers are extremely cautious and sometimes "scared" when preparing a GFE. There are stories circulating that on some loans, the banks and loan officers actually lost money in closing the loan.

Overall, mortgage originations have declined since this new law took effect January 1, 2010. Many banks and mortgage brokerage firms are still trying to adjust to these new changes. Hopefully, the industry will figure our how to efficently adjust to this new law in the coming months.