Well, it's here and it's ugly. The Final Rule amending the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA) is posted in today’s Federal Register. This rule is intended to help consumers to shop for a lower cost mortgage and avoid costly and potential harmful loan offers.

 

I have only briefly looked over the new rule.  Below are the most obvious changes and one hopeful possibility:

 

The new and improved Good Faith Estimate has expanded to three pages.  (HUD's description)

 

The revised HUD-1 is also three pages and the revised HUD-1A is two pages.   

It appears that HUD did amend RESPA with regard to the Servicing Disclosure ("We plan to keep of sell your loan").  The regulation will now conform with the 1996 Economic Growth and Regulatory Paperwork Reduction Act, that simplified this disclosure dramatically.  The rule also addresses RESPA disclosures and E-SIGN requirements.

The effective date for the final rule is January 19, 2009.  The use of the new GFE and HUD-1/HUD-1A will be required as of January 1, 2010.

 

Use the link below to see the Federal Register document.