Although monthly government-insured mortgage production was little changed, new loan applications surged and mortgage delinquency tumbled.
For the month of February 2016, Federal Housing Administration endorsements totaled
93,583 residential loans for a total of $18.432 billion.
The findings were based on a Mortgage Daily examination and analysis of data reported by the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
FHA business was hardly any different than a month prior, when 93,485 loans were endorsed for $18.462 billion.
A significant improvement was made from a year prior, when 55,466 residential loans were endorsed for $10.205 billion.
The latest activity brought-year-to-date FHA endorsements to 187,068 loans for $36.894 billion.
FHA has endorsed 501,814 residential loans for $98.331 billion since the start of its fiscal-year 2016 on Oct. 1, 2015.
The February 2016 total included $17.045 billion in single-family loans, $1.380 billion in home-equity conversion mortgages and $0.007 billion in Title I loans.
Single-family refinance share was a third, widening from
30.2 percent in January.
Business during March likely turned higher based on single-family and HECM applications, which totaled 146,871 versus just 111,995 in January.
FHA ended February 2016 with
insurance in force on 8,449,941 residential loans for $1.2375 trillion.
The total grew from 8,438,568 loans for $1.2340 trillion a month earlier and 8,405,042 loans for $1.2186 trillion a year earlier.
Single-family loans accounted for $1.0899 trillion of FHA’s latest book of business, while HECMs made up $0.1466 trillion and Title I loans represented the remaining $0.0010 trillion.
HUD data indicate that
residential delinquency of at least 30 days, including foreclosures and bankruptcies, tumbled 148 basis points from the first month of the year to 11.19 percent. As of the same month last year, delinquency stood at 12.61 percent.
February 2016’s 90-day delinquency rate fell to 5.55 percent from the previous month’s 5.8 percent.
The FHA foreclosure rate as of the most-recent date was 1.78 percent, and the bankruptcy rate was 0.89 percent.
In commercial real estate, FHA endorsed 97 loans for $1.201 billion during February of this year.
CRE activity jumped from 67 loans for $0.851 billion the prior month and soared from 66 loans for $0.294 billion a year prior.
During the first-two months of 2016, volume totaled 164 CRE loans endorsed for $2.052 billion, while fiscal-year 2016 year-to-date business came to 492 loans for $5.244 billion.
Multifamily business represented $1.009 billion of February 2016’s CRE loan endorsements, nursing home loans came to $0.192 billion, and there were no hospital loans endorsed.
FHA’s CRE book of business was 14,101 loans for $106.232 billion.
Insurance in force was 14,129 loans for $106.176 billion at the end of January and 13,967 loans for $102.446 billion as of Feb. 28, 2015.
The Feb. 29, 2016, total included $75.130 billion in multifamily loans,
$24.089 billion in nursing home loans and $7.014 billion in hospital loans.
