Total HMBS payoffs in September were 0.4% lower than August; the 1-mo prepayment speed for September was 13.9% compared to August’s 14.3%. Outstanding HMBS increased by $24.4 million to $56.18 billion, only the 7th increase in the last 44 months. The overall decline in HMBS understates the true story in outstanding HMBS and HECMs because negative amortization of underlying HECM loans mitigates dropping HMBS balances. While HMBS balances declined 1.0% and 3.0% over the last one and two years respectively, loan count dropped 5.2% and 11.6% over those same timeframes. The outstanding HMBS population in September 2021 included 309,910 HECMs; as of September 30th there were 236,848.
“Ginnie Mae – Reverse Mortgage Funding 42” remains as issuer of record for 3,857 former RMF pools. About $211 million of Issuer 42’s portfolio paid off in September, but Issuer 42 still accounts for $10.6 billion, or 19% of all outstanding HMBS. Issuer 42 has not issued any tail pools; we estimate Issuer 42 still has an uncertificated position of over $1 billion, that is, the excess of their portfolio’s HECM asset balance over the balance of their HMBS liability.
Finance of America is now the issuer of record for $23.6 billion or 42% of all outstanding HMBS, having replaced Ginnie Mae as the largest portfolio in 2024. Along with Longbridge, these three issuers account for 80% of all outstanding HMBS.
When a HECM loan balance reaches 98% of its MCA, the HMBS issuer is required to buy the loans out of the HMBS pool and then assign the loan to HUD if the loan is not in default. This is effectively a prepayment event for the HMBS investor, even though the underlying HECM loan remains outstanding. According to our friends at Recursion, payoffs last month due to Mandatory Purchases were $298 million. Mandatory Purchases have averaged $404 million over the last 24 months.
New View Advisors compiled this data from publicly available Ginnie Mae data as well as private sources.