Federal Housing Administration single-family endorsements rose 9.5% in January from the prior month while the percentage of seriously delinquent government loans inched up to 9.8%.
Mortgage bankers originated $18.3 billion of FHA-insured loans in January, including $1.2 billion of reverses.
Originations of forward mortgages totaled $17.1 billion. Roughly $10.3 billion were purchase money loans. In December lenders funded $15.6 billion of FHA product.
At the end of January, 733,844 FHA loans were considered past due, a 3.2% jump from December. A year ago the serious delinquency rate was 8.9%.
Housing and Urban Development secretary Shaun Donovan told a Senate panel this past week that the prolonged settlement talks with the five major servicing banks slowed the processing of foreclosures – which led to a buildup of FHA delinquent loans.
The housing secretary believes the trend will subside, but not before the FHA fund is forced to pay out claims on that inventory of defaulted loans.
