by Calculated Risk on 1/19/2010 09:15:00 PM

From David Streitfeld at the NY Times: F.H.A. to Raise Standards for Mortgage Insurance

The Federal Housing Administration ... is expected to announce on Wednesday that it is tightening standards.

Borrowers who get an F.H.A.-insured loan will soon have to pay a higher initial insurance premium. The new premium will be 2.25 percent of the value of the loan, up from 1.75 percent.

... The maximum amount of assistance will drop to 3 percent of the value of the property, from the current 6 percent.

Other changes will try to hold lenders who participate in the F.H.A. program more accountable by publicly reporting their performance rankings.
...
As of December, the F.H.A. was insuring 5.8 million single-family residences that had a total loan balance of $750 billion. More than half a million of the loans were seriously delinquent and heading toward foreclosure.

There is much more in the article.

These are small changes and what HUD has been signaling for some time. But they will make a difference at the margin.