On January 17, FHA INFO 20-05 announced that FHA provided a Reminder - Guidance for FHA-Approved Mortgagees and Servicers Regarding Presidentially-Declared Major Disaster Areas. This is a reminder to mortgagees about its guidance for originating and/or servicing FHA-insured forward mortgages in locations in the U.S. and its territories when the President declares it a major disaster area.

On January 2, FHA INFO 20-01 announced that FHA implemented its Defect Taxonomy Version 2, effective for loan reviews beginning Wednesday, January 1, 2020. The new version includes various updates to the Defect Taxonomy originally implemented through the Loan Review System (LRS) in 2017. Also announced were recent changes to LRS, and an updated LRS User Manual which can be accessed from the Loan Review System webpage on HUD.gov.