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Ginnie Mae's mortgage-backed securities (MBS) portfolio outstanding grew to $2.422 trillion in June 2023, including $39 billion of total MBS issuance, leading to $18 billion of net growth. Issuance for June was significantly higher than May's total of $34 billion, as well as April's reported $33 billion.
June 2023's new MBS issuance supports the financing of more than 130,000 households, including more than 62,000 first-time homebuyers. Approximately 75% of the June MBS issuance reflects new mortgages that support home purchases, as refinance activity remained low due to higher interest rates.
The fixed-rate mortgage hit a high point for 2023 last week as Freddie Mac reported in its latest Primary Mortgage Market Survey (PMMS) that the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 6.81%, up 10-basis points week-over-week over the previous week’s reading of 6.71%. A year ago at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 5.30%.
“Mortgage rates continued their upward trajectory again this week, rising to the highest rate this year so far,” said Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s Chief Economist. “This upward trend is being driven by a resilient economy, persistent inflation, and a more hawkish tone from the Federal Reserve. These high rates, combined with low inventory continue to price many potential homebuyers out of the market.”
For the 2023 calendar year to date, Ginnie Mae supported the pooling and securitization of more than 294,000 first-time homebuyer loans.
Ginnie Mae’s June issuance includes $37.9 billion of Ginnie Mae II MBS and $1.3 billion of Ginnie Mae I MBS, including approximately $1.2 billion in loans for multifamily housing.
Ginnie Mae’s MBS portfolio grew to $2.404 trillion in the month of May, including $34 billion of total MBS issuance, leading to $14 billion of net growth. Issuance for May 2023 was $1 billion higher than April’s reported total of $33 billion, and $6 billion higher than March 2023’s recorded total of $28 billion.
Ginnie Mae also recently announced the expansion of its low- to moderate-income (LMI) disclosure initiative to include loan-level pool data for U.S. Department of Agriculture, Rural Housing Service (USDA-RHS) loans. This pool level borrower income data will be used in Ginnie Mae's Mortgage-Backed Security Level "LMI Income" disclosure.
Ginnie Mae has been working to enhance its LMI disclosures, beginning with LMI geographic information two years ago, and the addition of LMI income earlier in 2023. These disclosures are key to Ginnie Mae's social and environmental mission, and align with increased environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations from its mortgage-backed securities (MBS) investors. As of April 2023, Ginnie Mae reported nearly 800,000 USDA-RHS loans in its portfolio representing more than 7% of Ginnie Mae's single-family MBS.
Ginnie Mae’s MBS programs directly support housing finance programs administered by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) Office of Public and Indian Housing, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Rural Housing Service (USDA).
