June 5, 2012 (Shirley Allen)
Applications for mortgage loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) plunged in April but were only slightly lower than last year’s levels while completed refinance applications surged by two-thirds compared to last year according to the agency’s Single-Family Outlook report for April.
A total of 156,453 FHA loan applications were submitted in April, 24.0 percent lower than the 205,778 applications submitted in the previous month and 2.3 percent lower than the 160,186 applications submitted in April of last year.
Loan applications for refinancing a current mortgage fell 23.1 percent from March with a total of 61,824 applications submitted in April compared to 80,351 in March. Refinance applications were still 35.3 percent higher than in April of last year when 45,690 applications were submitted.
The total number of applications submitted for the purpose of purchasing a home was also lower in April, declining by 25.5 percent compared to March. A total of 88,121 applications were submitted in April to purchase homes, down from 118,352 applications submitted in March. Purchase applications were 17.7 percent lower than in April of last year when 107,125 applications were submitted.
Completed applications grew by 7.9 percent from March to April, increasing from 100,939 to 108,954. April’s loan completions were also 16.7 percent higher than the 93,394 loans completed a year ago.
Loans for purchased homes accounted for 53.9 percent of all completed FHA insured loans in April with 58,716 completed, an increase of 8.4 percent from March, but 2.8 percent lower than the 60,378 purchase money mortgages in April of 2011.
Refinanced loans accounted for 41.9 percent of all completed loans in April, which was 69.7 percent higher than last year. The 45,643 loans completed in April were 7.7 percent higher than in March.
The average FICO score for a homebuyer securing an FHA loan in April was 695, one less than in March and down from 701 a year ago. For refinanced loans, the average FICO score in April was 712, up two from the previous month and up from 704 a year earlier.
The number of seriously delinquent loans insured by the FHA remained virtually unchanged from March to April but was still 22.8 percent higher than a year ago.
Loans that were 90 days or more past due fell by a modest 295 in April bringing the total number of seriously delinquent loans in the FHA’s portfolio to 707,330. In the last year, the number of seriously delinquent loans has increased by 131,380.
The serious delinquency rate was 9.4 percent in April, unchanged from March but up from 8.2 percent in April 2011.
At the end of April, the FHA had 7,549,568 insured single-family mortgages in its portfolio with an amortized balance of $1.057 trillion.
The number of loans insured by the FHA has increased by 7.3 percent in the last year while the amortized balance has increased by 8.4 percent.
Tags: FHA, Single-family Outlook report, loan originations, purchase loans, refinance loans, FICO score, serious delinquency rate
Source:
HUD