The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) released its 2019 Annual Report to Congress on the economic condition of the agency’s Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund (MMI Fund). FHA reports that at the end of Fiscal Year (FY) 2019, The FHA MMI Fund Capital Ratio for FY 2019 was 4.84 percent, the highest level since FY 2007.
The MMI Fund supports FHA’s single-family mortgage insurance programs, including all forward mortgage purchase and refinance transactions, as well as mortgages insured under the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM), or reverse mortgage program, since FY 2009.
“The financial health of FHA’s single-family insurance fund is as sound as it has been in over a decade,” said U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson. “We have a strong economy with nearly full employment due to President Trump’s leadership, and this economic growth helps set the foundation for ongoing improvements in our FHA portfolio.”
Commissioner Montgomery added, “This report is welcome news. The improvements we’ve begun to put in place in the last two years to stem the losses of the reverse mortgage portfolio, aided by favorable economic conditions, are contributing to some improvements in our reverse mortgage portfolio. Looking forward, we must focus on seeking the right balance between facilitating access to mortgage credit and managing risk. Our mission is to make certain FHA remains a stable and reliable resource to provide housing finance support for first-time homebuyers, and other underserved borrowers.”
Key highlights from FHA’s 2019 annual report
- Congress has set a mandatory minimum Capital Ratio of 2 percent for the MMI Fund. The Capital Ratio for FY 2019 was 4.84 percent, the highest level since FY 2007. The Capital Ratio is one indicator of the Fund’s financial health and includes both FHA-insured single family forward and reverse mortgage portfolios.
- As detailed in today’s FY 2019 annual report to Congress, FHA had insurance-in-force on single family mortgages valued at almost $1.3 trillion at the end of this fiscal year.
- The performance of the forward book of business posted a stand-alone capital ratio of 5.44 percent. The MMI Capital (formerly referred to as economic net worth) of the forward book of business also improved year-to-year by over 42 percent with a value of over $66.6 billion.
The HECM portfolio continues to show a negative stand-alone capital ratio, but improved substantially from a negative (-) 18.83 percent capital ratio in FY 2018 to negative (-) 9.22 percent in FY 2019. The HECM portfolio also showed an improvement in MMI Capital, increasing $7.7 billion.
Independent actuary
Pinnacle Actuarial Resources, Inc. (Pinnacle) served as the independent actuary for FY 2019. By serving as a critical check on the results, an independent actuarial review remains an integral part of the Annual Report process. Pinnacle’s independent actuarial review reports for forward mortgages and HECM, confirming that the estimates used in the FY 2019 Annual Report to calculate the capital ratio are reasonable. The reports are available on HUD’s website.
