HMBS Issuance remains near historical lows, comparing monthly issuance dating back to 2010, however October’s issuance was the highest since September 2023. HECM Mortgage-Backed Securities (“HMBS”) issuance totaled $598 million, $98 million higher than September’s $500 million. 78 pools were issued in October, one fewer than September.
Ginnie Mae circulated for comment June 27th a Term Sheet for its proposed “HMBS 2.0” program, whereby loans that have UPBs in excess of 98% of Maximum Claim Amount can be pooled. If implemented, HMBS 2.0 should increase HMBS issuance substantially by financing most mandatory buyouts, which have been running over $400 million per month, according to Recursion.
FAR was the top issuer again in October with $170 million – $19 million above September’s $151 million. Issuance from Mutual of Omaha skyrocketed to $161 million from $75 million because of $88 million in tail pools – they last securitized tails in June. Longbridge issuance increased by $21 million to $126 million. PHH issued $88 million – $20 million lower from last month’s $108 million. Ginnie Mae/RMF (aka “Issuer 42”) again issued no HMBS pools.
HMBS issuance set a record in 2022, with nearly $14 billion issued. Total issuance for 2023 was approximately $6.5 billion. 2024 total issuance through October totals $4.9 billion – $579 million lower than at this time last year and $7.6 billion lower than at this time in 2022.
October’s original (first participation) production of $345 million was $5 million lower than September’s $350 million and $9 million higher than August’s $336 million.
The 78 pools issued in October consisted of 21 first-participation or original pools, 52 tail pools and 5 pools which include both first participations and tails. Original pools are those HMBS pools backed by first participations in previously uncertificated HECM loans. Tail HMBS issuances are HMBS pools consisting of subsequent participations. Tails are not from new loans, but they do represent new amounts lent. Last month’s tail pool issuance totaled $253 million, a large increase from September’s $130 million.
Notable in the October HMBS issuance data are 21 pools with aggregate pool size less than $1 million. Issuers are taking advantage of Ginnie Mae’s provision to issue pools as small as $250,000. This represents $13.6 million of UPB that may not otherwise have been issued in October. Ginnie Mae issued APM 23-11 a year ago, which allows participations from the same loan to be pooled more than once in the same month. The aggregate of participations pooled in October for which more than one participation from the same loan was pooled is $79.1 million, of which $4.8 million were first participations.
New View Advisors compiled this data from publicly available Ginnie Mae data as well as private sources
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