As FHA Mortgage Volume Increases From 2009, Serious Delinquencies Spike

The rate of seriously delinquent mortgages backed by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) declined slightly from May to June, but the gross number of mortgages that are either 90 or more days past due or in foreclosure increased 35% year-over-year. According to the FHA June single-family operations report, the total volume of mortgage insurance in-force increased more than 24% to 6.4m in June compared to the same month one year ago. The total value of unpaid FHA mortgages was $865.5bn in June, up 30.3% from $663.8bn one year ago and up 3.3% from $837.8bn in May. But with that increase came a rise in serious delinquencies, 7.6% last year, compared to 8.3% in June. The gross serious delinquencies of 532,757 in June was down slightly from 530,140 in May. Year-to-date for the FHA fiscal year, the administration paid 207,715 claims insurance — 124,191 were for loss mitigation and 83,524 were for property conveyances. The rise in FHA delinquencies is having a substantial impact on lender balance sheets. JPMorgan (JPM) disclosed in its Q210 quarterly report that the value of its government-backed REO assets nearly tripled in one year. The bank later confirmed to HousingWire the surge in both REO and nonaccruing mortgages on its balance sheet was the result of buybacks of assets from Ginnie Mae securities. In June, the FHA received 168,915 applications for insurance, down 29.4% from one year ago and down 6.9% from May. The June application pool included 89,951 purchase transactions, 69,876 refinance cases and 9,088 home equity conversion mortgage (HECM, or reverse mortgage) applications. Of the refinance applications, 23,659 of the applicants were trying to refinance an existing FHA loan, while 46,217 were conventional mortgages converting to FHA loans. There were 50 Hope for Homeowner cases that were part of the refinances. Based on applications received, the FHA said the seasonally adjusted annual rate of applications was nearly 1.9m, down 13% from the previous month’s rate and the lowest since January’s rate of 1.69m. Write to Austin Kilgore. The author held no relevant investments.