The HMBS market shrank again in March for the second time in the last 4 months, with record prepayment numbers exceeding new issuance and negative amortization. Issuers created 103 pools in March totaling nearly $727 million. HMBS production remained steady as it has for the last several months, with an occasional bump from highly seasoned pools. March issuance divided into 44 original pools and 59 tail pools. No seasoned original pools were issued. Production of original new loan pools was $508 million, down from February’s $512 million.
Original pools are those HMBS pools backed first participations in previously uncertificated HECM loans. Tail HMBS issuances are HMBS pools consisting of subsequent participations. In other words, tail pools are created from the Uncertificated Portions of HECMs that have already had their original HMBS issuance. March’s tail issuance was about $219 million, consistent with tail production the past 12 months.
In December 2016, the HMBS market shrank for the first time as prepayments drove total outstanding HMBS to just under $55 billion. Last month, total outstanding HMBS shrank by about $62 million from February, driven by last month’s record payoffs. We estimate that last month’s change in HMBS balance was composed of approximately $177 million in negative amortization (a record), plus the $727 million in new issuance, minus $966 million in payoffs. Payoffs have exceeded new issuance for seven months in a row.
Payoffs figure continue to climb as more seasoned HECM loans liquidate or reach 98% of their Maximum Claim Amount (“MCA”). Our friends at Recursion Co once again crunched the numbers: the payoffs from 98% MCA assignments totaled a record $550 million last month. This amount has been rising steadily. According to Recursion, the 98% MCA puts were only $92 million, or 29.8% of payoffs in September 2013. This could mean further shrinkage in HMBS float throughout 2017.
New View Advisors compiled this data from publicly available Ginnie Mae data as well as private sources.