The bad news is that government-insured loan originations and outstandings declined. The good news is that so did the delinquency rate.
The Federal Housing Administration endorsed 53,196 residential loans for $9.555 billion during February, data released Friday indicate.
Business sank compared to January, when 70,740 loans were endorsed for $12.753 billion.
The latest activity brought FHA’s year-to-date volume to 123,936 loans for $22.308 billion.
Since beginning its fiscal-year 2014 on Oct. 1, 2013, endorsements amounted to 346,955 loans for $61.513 billion.
February’s activity included $8.150 billion in single-family loans, $1.398 billion in home-equity conversion mortgages and $0.007 billion in Title I loans.
March is poised for an improvement based on loan applications, which rose to 82,439 from a revised 76,837 in January.
Residential outstandings during the latest month fell to 8,489,345 loans for $1.2448 trillion from the previous month’s 8,517,933 loans for $1.2453 trillion.
The Feb. 28 number reflected $1.0957 trillion in single-family loans, $0.1481 trillion in HECMs and $0.0010 trillion in Title One loans.
Single-family delinquency of at least 30 days, including foreclosures and bankruptcies, was at 13.50 percent, improving from 14.23 percent as of Jan. 31.
A year earlier, delinquency was 15.33 percent.
The rate of loans that were at least 90 days past due finished February at 7.71 percent.
Moving on to commercial real estate, FHA endorsed 103 units for $1.027 billion, more than the 93 loans for $0.906 billion endorsed during January.
Calendar-year 2014 endorsements totaled 196Â CRE loans for $1.933 billion, while fiscal-year 2014 volume stood at 613 loans for $6.318 billion.
February’s CRE activity included $0.739 billion in multifamily loans, $0.250 billion in nursing home mortgages and $0.038 billion in hospital loans.
As of the end of February, there were 13,444 FHA-insured CRE loans for $95.4 billion outstanding, slightly more than 13,440 loans for $95.2 billion a month earlier.
The most recent number was comprised of $65.5 billion in multifamily loans, $21.2 billion in nursing home loans and $8.8 billion in hospital loans.
