HECM Mortgage-Backed Securities (“HMBS”) issuance in March totaled $441 million, $10 million more than February’s $431 million and $46 million less than March 2025’s $487 million total. 66 pools were issued in March, the same as in February. There have only been four months of lower issuance since 2009 including last month’s $431 million.
For all HMBS, FAR was the top issuer in the month of March with $138 million – a decrease of $2 million from February’s $140 million. Issuance from Longbridge was $114 million, an increase of $10 million from February. Mutual of Omaha issuance decreased by $2 million to $81 million. Onity Mortgage Corporation, formerly PHH, issued $59 million – a $7 million decrease from last month’s $66 million. Ginnie Mae/RMF (aka “Issuer 42”) again issued no HMBS pools.
March’s original (“First Participation”) production of $260 million was the same as February, but $97 million less than January’s $357 million and $57 million less than March 2025’s $317 million.
For the first three months of 2026, FAR was the top issuer of First Participation HMBS with $255 million issued, followed by Longbridge with $237 million, Mutual of Omaha with $175 million, and Onity with $107 million.
The 66 pools issued in March consisted of 16 First Participation pools, 49 tail pools and 1 pool 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 $181 million compared to February’s $169 million.
There were 20 pools in March with an 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 $12.4 million of UPB that may not otherwise have been issued in March. 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 March for which more than one participation from the same loan was pooled is $69.8 million, of which $5.7 million were First Participations.
New View Advisors compiled this data from publicly available Ginnie Mae data as well as private sources.