Over the past year, the monthly number of loans endorsed by the Federal Housing Administration has fallen by a quarter. But driven by a 25 percent increase in refinances, overall new loan applications turned higher last month. Federally insured reverse mortgage volume was stronger and so were reverse mortgage applications.
The mortgage insurer reported 139,045 endorsements for August. Activity fell from 144,514 a month earlier and sank from 185,423 a year earlier.
FHA said the dollar volume was unchanged from July at $25.9 billion but was 25 percent lower than August 2009.
From Oct. 1, 2009, to Aug. 31, FHA endorsed 1,620,789 loans for $294.4 billion. By the end of its fiscal year this month, the total is projected to climb to 1,875,000 loans for $349.7 billion.
Refinance volume last month was 43,078 loans for $8.4 billion, and purchase transactions were 89,322 endorsements for $15.8 billion.
Home-equity conversion mortgage endorsements were 6,645 units for a maximum claim amount of $1.7 billion — the highest level of activity since March’s 7,024 endorsements for $1.9 billion. HECM activity was 5,901 endorsements for $1.5 billion in July and 8,933 for $2.7 billion during the same month last year.
Section 203(k) endorsements were little moved from the prior month at 2,195. Condominium endorsements fell 11 percent to 6,518.
New FHA applications strengthened to 200,907 from July’s 173,068. Purchase applications and HECM applications both grew by 8 percent and refinance applications fattened by a quarter
Last month’s average processing time from application to closing was trimmed to 6.8 weeks from 6.9 weeks in July.
The housing agency said August’s weighted average FICO score was unchanged from the previous month at 697. Scores were better, however, than 692 last year.
FHA loans outstanding climbed to 6.7 million loans for $888.0 billion from the previous month’s 6.5 million loans for $873.5 billion.
Delinquency of at least 90 days on FHA-insured loans was 8.5 percent in August, better than 8.6 percent the month before. FHA lates were, however, around 10 basis points worse than August 2009.
