Ginnie Mae’s mortgage-backed securities (MBS) portfolio outstanding grew to $2.389 trillion in April 2023, including $33 billion of total MBS issuance, leading to $16 billion of net growth. Issuance for this month was higher than March’s $28 billion, and significantly higher than February’s $24 billion.
According to Ginnie Mae, April’s new MBS issuance supports the financing of more than 112,000 households, including more than 50,700 first-time homebuyers. Approximately 72% of the April MBS issuance reflects new mortgages that support home purchases, as refi activity remained low due to higher mortgage rates.
For the 2023 calendar year to date, Ginnie Mae supported the pooling and securitization of more than 177,000 first-time homebuyer loans.
The April issuance includes $32 billion of Ginnie Mae II MBS and $1 billion of Ginnie Mae I MBS, including approximately $1.2 billion in loans for multifamily housing.
To close out the first quarter of 2023, Ginnie Mae’s MBS portfolio outstanding grew to $2.373 trillion, with the addition of $80 billion of MBS issuance during the period, with gross issuance ranging within $24-28 billion each month.
Q1 2023’s new MBS issuance supported financing of more than 281,000 households, including more than 126,000 first-time homebuyers. Roughly 70% percent of the Q1 issuance volume reflects purchase money activity, resulting from a shift in market conditions and reduced loan refinance activity due to higher interest rates.
While overall issuance volumes have declined over the past year, returning to a more normalized purchase money market, current origination volumes across all four agency partners, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Loan Guaranty Program (VA), U.S. Department of Agriculture, Rural Housing Services (RHS), and HUD’s Public and Indian Housing (PIH), reflect strong support for affordable housing and homeownership nationwide.
During Q1 2023, the mortgage loans pooled into Ginnie Mae MBS included over 45,000 households who avoided foreclosure through its insuring and guarantying agencies partners’ loss mitigation programs. Ginnie Mae is proud to support our Issuers on the secondary capital markets and expand liquidity while supporting home retention efforts.