Led by a one-quarter drop in refinances, endorsements by the Federal Housing Administration fell 20 percent in the first half of this month. And new applications suggest business will fall further.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development reported today 86,826 endorsements from Aug. 1 to Aug. 15. Endorsements declined from 108,154 in the second half of July.
This month’s activity included 50,335 FHA loans for home purchases, down from 59,951. Refinances represented 32,555 transactions, falling from 43,129 in the last half of July.
FHA endorsed 3,936 home-equity conversion mortgages in the first half of this month, down from 5,074 in the prior period.
In all, FHA has issued 1,671,649 endorsements from Oct. 1, 2008, to Aug. 15, 2009, compared to 979,286 during the same period in the prior fiscal year. By the time the current fiscal year ends at the end of next month, FHA predicts 2.1 million endorsements will have been issued.
First-half August applications were 104,978, down from 123,036. Purchase applications fell to 57,881 from 66,752 in the second-half July, and refinances declined to 41,811 from 50,178. Reverse mortgage applications fell to 5,286 from 6,106.
Mortgage insurance in force as of Aug. 15 was 5.3 million policies for $647.3 billion, higher than 5.2 million policies for $626.5 billion at the end of July.
