HECM Mortgage-Backed Securities (“HMBS”) issuance in August totaled $502 million, $39 million less than July’s $541 million. 75 pools were issued in August, four fewer than July.
FAR was the top issuer in August with $152 million – a decrease of $3 million from July’s $155 million. Issuance from Longbridge was $111 million, down $3 million from July. Mutual of Omaha issuance decreased by $7 million to $98 million. PHH issued $87 million – a $21 million decrease from last month’s $108 million. Ginnie Mae/RMF (aka “Issuer 42”) again issued no HMBS pools.
August’s original (first participation) production of $322 million was $21 million lower than July’s $343 million and $28 million lower than June’s $350 million.
The 75 pools issued in August consisted of 18 first-participation or original pools, 55 tail pools, and two pools which included 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 $179 million compared to July’s $197 million.
Notable in the August HMBS issuance data are 19 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 $8.7 million of UPB that may not otherwise have been issued in August. Also, Ginnie Mae issued APM 23-11 in 2023 which allows participations from the same loan to be pooled more than once in the same month. The aggregate of participations pooled in August for which more than one participation from the same loan was pooled is $58.1 million, of which $2.6 million were first participations.
New View Advisors compiled this data from publicly available Ginnie Mae data as well as private sources.