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Total refinancings by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac seller/servicers dropped 10% from June to 369,100 in July, according to a new report by the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

HARP refinancings also fell by 10% to the lowest level since December.

The FHFA reported Thursday that GSE servicers completed 79,260 HARP refis in July, down from 88,375 in the prior month.

In July, 17% of loans refinanced through HARP had loan-to-value ratios greater than 125% and 42% of HARP refis had LTVs greater than 105%.

Overall, HARP refis comprised 22% of total GSE refinancings in July.

Grant Mitchell, the former assistant general counsel at the Department of Housing and Urban Development known throughout the industry as Mr. RESPA, died on Monday, Sept. 10. He was 76.

He was with HUD for 34 years, but as he recalled in an interview which appeared in the May 10, 1999 issue of National Mortgage News shortly after he left the agency, it was in 1984 when he got the task for which he said, “My life was never the same again.”

Mitchell’s then-boss John Knapp gave him responsibility over the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act. But things really got interesting in the fall of 1992.

Right before the presidential election that year, HUD issued RESPA regulations written by Mitchell, including the one which required mortgage brokers todisclose the yield-spread premium received for the first time.

Mitchell noted the rule came about from the merger of Bank of America and Security Pacific, where one wholesaler did disclose the information on the HUD-1 and one didn’t and they were looking for some guidance.

After he left HUD, Mitchell first worked at the law firm of Reed Smith Shaw & McClay before going to Lotstein Buckman.