The Federal Housing Administration endorsed $15.7 billion of single-family loans in October, a 3% decline from the previous month, according to new figures released Thursday morning.
The FHA monthly "Outlook" report shows that lending to homebuyers has edged down for three consecutive months with the serious delinquency rate rising to the highest level since February 2010.
Total endorsements include $14.6 billion of forward mortgages and $1.1 billion of reverse loans.
Lenders funded just $10.2 billion of purchase mortgages, down 9% from September. In August, FHA endorsed $12.7 billion of purchase money loans.
At the end of October 9% of FHA-backed mortgages were considered seriously delinquent mortgage (90 days or more past due) compared to 8.7% in September.
