Outstanding HMBS fell by nearly $200 million in June, as low issuance, high payoffs, and an absence of highly seasoned issues took their toll. Payoffs once again totaled just under $1 billion. Total outstanding HMBS fell to just over $54.2 billion, a three-year low. HMBS float is now $2.2 billion below its peak a year ago.
Total HMBS float will likely fall further given current trends. As we noted earlier this week, HMBS issuance in the first half of 2019 was the lowest half-year of issuance in five years.
We predict continuing declines in Mandatory Buyouts in the foreseeable future. “Peak Buyout” was an echo of the peak issuance from 2009 through the first half of 2013. Much of this production has already been repurchased or repaid by borrowers. From now on, billion-dollar-plus payoff months will be the exception rather than the rule. Many HECM loans continue to reach their buyout threshold, equal to 98% of their Maximum Claim Amount (“MCA”), but Peak Buyout appears to have ended.
Our friends at Recursion broke down the prepayment numbers further: the 98% MCA mandatory purchases accounted for $600 million, or about 64%, of the payoffs last month. This tracks May’s numbers very closely and continues a gradual downward trend from the buyout peak in last year’s third quarter, which averaged over $750 million in Mandatory Purchases per month.
New View Advisors compiled this data from publicly available Ginnie Mae data as well as private sources.