Department of Housing and Urban Development March 14, 2008 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This proposed rule presents HUD's proposal to simplify and improve the disclosure requirements for mortgage settlement costs under the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act of 1974 (RESPA), to protect consumers from unnecessarily high settlement costs. This proposed rule takes into consideration: discussions during HUD's RESPA Reform Roundtables held in July and August 2005; public comments in response to HUD's July 29, 2002, proposed rule that addressed RESPA reform; and comments received and views expressed through congressional hearings; meetings with affected parties; and consultation with other federal agencies, including the Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy. HUD's objective in proposing these revisions is to protect consumers from unnecessarily high settlement costs by taking steps to: Improve and standardize the Good Faith Estimate (GFE) form, to make it easier to use for shopping among settlement service providers; ensure that page one of the GFE provides a clear summary of the loan terms and total settlement charges so that borrowers will be able to use the GFE to comparison shop among loan originators for a mortgage loan; provide more accurate estimates of costs of settlement services shown on the GFE; improve disclosure of yield spread premiums to help borrowers understand how they can affect their settlement charges; facilitate comparison of the GFE and the HUD-1/HUD-1A Settlement Statements (HUD-1 settlement statement or HUD-1); ensure that at settlement borrowers are made aware of final loan terms and settlement costs, by reading and providing a copy of a ``closing script'' to borrowers; clarify HUD-1 instructions; clarify HUD's current regulations concerning discounts; and expressly state when RESPA permits certain pricing mechanisms that benefit consumers, including average cost pricing and discounts, including volume based discounts.