HMBS November 2023: If It Looks Like a Turkey, and Walks Like a Turkey, It’s…

The HMBS new issue market was slightly off in November compared to October. HECM Mortgage-Backed Securities (“HMBS”) issuance totaled $561 million in November, relatively the same as October’s $565 million. 110 pools were issued.

FAR was the top issuer in November with $185 million – down from October’s $216 million and September’s $197 million; issuance from Longbridge and Mutual of Omaha each increased approximately $10 million – $134 million and $102 million respectively. Ginnie Mae/RMF (aka “Issuer 42”) again issued no HMBS pools.

HMBS issuance set a record in 2022, with nearly $14 billion issued. HMBS issuers are unlikely to reach half that total in 2023, with year-to-date production less than $6.1 billion through November.

November’s original (first participation) production of $358 million was down from October’s $374 million. November’s first participation issuance also included a $3.3 million pool of seasoned loans.

The 110 pools issued in November consisted of 19 first-participation or original pools, 88 tail pools and 3 pools with both new production and tail participations. 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 issuances totaled $204 million, below the typical range.

Notable in the November HMBS issuance data are 38 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 $21.8 million of UPB that may not otherwise have been issued in November. Ginnie Mae recently issued APM 23-11 which now allows participations from the same loan to be pooled more than once in the same month. Both of these provisions are designed to provide warehouse financing relief to Issuers.

New View Advisors compiled this data from publicly available Ginnie Mae data as well as private sources.