The government is making some headway in reducing its role in the U.S. mortgage markets. Next year’s market share for the Federal Housing Administration is on track to come in at a little more than half the level it stood at during the height of the financial crisis.
When financial markets seized up in late 2008, loans insured by FHA accounted for 23.7 percent of residential originations. Two years earlier, the government only insured 1.9 percent of U.S. production.
By last year, when overall originations were roughly $1.545 trillion, FHA production was $0.302 trillion. That worked out to a market share of around 19.6 percent — a significant decline from the depths of the crisis.
The trend has continued into 2011.
In the first quarter of this year, when overall originations were about $317.7 billion, FHA production accounted for around 18.3 percent of the total.
Second-quarter FHA market share fell to approximately 17.8 percent of U.S. production, which was in the neighborhood of $289.0 billion.
FHA endorsements slipped to $49.7 billion in third quarter from $51.4 billion three months earlier. At the same time, total U.S. home-loan production was about $353.7 billion — leaping from the second quarter.
That reduced third-quarter FHA share to only 14.0 percent.
Full-year 2011 FHA market share is on track to come in at around 16 percent.
If the current trend continues — FHA share could be between 12 and 14 percent next year.
