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82 82 INVESTMENT GOVERNMENT PROPERTY PRESERVATION INDUSTRY UPDATES FHA 2020 REPORT SHOWS HOW IT HELPED STRUGGLING HOMEOWNERS e Federal Housing Administration (FHA) released its 2020 annual report today, which covers the financial status of the Mutual Mortgage Insurance (MMI) Fund and its Single-Family insurance programs. e 2020 FHA report emphasizes how the government agency helped homeowners who were financially impacted by COVID-19. e report states that "FHA supported the housing market throughout the pandemic by providing liquidity and stability." It outlines how FHA responded to the pandemic by "implementing a foreclosure and eviction moratorium and offering forbearance and other support" for American homeowners who faced COVID-19-related financial hardships this year. According to the annual report, FHA's serious delinquent portfolio grew by $117 billion this year due to COVID-19 forbearance. Nearly all of this increase happened "soon after borrowers began requesting forbearance subject to the provisions of the CARES Act" at the beginning of May. "While we focused our efforts on helping FHA homeowners impacted by the global pandemic keep their homes, we balanced this with sound risk management to protect taxpayers," Assistant Secretary for Housing and Federal Housing Commissioner Dana Wade said in a press release. "We also continue to demonstrate that during these times, FHA is open for business." Although the FHA's market share decreased from 11.56% in 2019 to 9.61% in 2020, it was indeed open for business. It had active insurance on more than 8.3 million single-family forward and reverse mortgages as of September 30, 2020. e FHA's combined capital ratio for 2020 was 6.10%, a 1.26% increase over 2019's 4.84% capital ratio. e combined capital ratio includes both the FHA-insured single-family forward and reverse mortgage portfolios. e increase in FHA's combined capital ratio indicates that the MMI Fund remains financially healthy. e report also shows that FHA served a record number of first-time and minority homebuyers despite coronavirus-related challenges. According to the report, the share of first-time homebuyers using FHA insurance reached a new high of 83.1% of the government agency's total forward mortgage purchase endorsements in 2020. Additionally, the share of mortgages insured by FHA to minority borrowers reached almost 33% of all FHA forward mortgage insurance endorsements this year "FHA successfully served more of the nation's first-time homebuyers and maintained its leadership role as the nation's largest facilitator of affordable mortgage financing for minority borrowers," HUD Secretary Ben Carson said in the press release. Wade also stated that the FHA, like many key players in the housing market, has adopted new technology this year as COVID-19 has intensified the growing need for technological and digital advancements across the housing industry. "We've exceeded expectations by bringing to market FHA Catalyst, a state-of-the-art technology platform that will keep credit flowing to FHA's core borrowers while providing us with the data and analytics we need to identify and manage risk," Wade said. Journal