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MortgagePoint » Your Trusted Source for Mortgage Banking and Servicing News 70 December 2024 J O U R N A L was released along with this announce- ment. The performance of the FHA Mu- tual Mortgage Insurance Fund (MMI Fund), which provides funding for the FHA Single Family mortgage insurance programs, is discussed in the report along with the activities of the pro- grams during fiscal year 2024. "Under the Biden-Harris admin- istration, we have expanded access to homeownership," HUD Agency Head Adrianne Todman said. "Despite high housing costs and a challenging mar- ket, we made historic reforms to help hundreds of thousands of Americans buy and keep a home." Key Findings: FHA's Impact in 2024 • Mortgage Availability: FHA insured a total of 766,942 forward mortgages during fiscal year 2024. In the last four fiscal years under the Biden-Harris administration, FHA has helped facilitate mortgage financing or refinancing for more than 3.9 million individuals and fam- ilies through its forward mortgage insurance programs. • Senior Support: Many seniors ben- efited from FHA-insured financing, with 26,501 obtaining FHA-insured Home Equity Conversion Mortgages (HECMs) in fiscal year 2024. More than 173,000 seniors were able to age in place with the help of the HECM program during the last four fiscal years. • First-Time Homebuyers: Some 82.64% of FHA-insured forward pur- chase transactions by loan count, or 498,363 mortgages, went to first-time homebuyers in fiscal year 2024. Over the past four years, approximately 2.3 million borrowers with FHA-insured home purchase mortgages were first- time homebuyers. This is eight out of every 10 FHA borrowers. • Diversity in Borrowers: In fiscal year 2024, roughly 31.66% of FHA-in- sured forward mortgages, or 242,796 mortgages, were made to borrowers who self-identified as borrowers of color. This is an increase of 18,500 mortgages by count and an increase of 1.03 percentage points by share of forward mortgages from FY 2023. Notably, 16.77%, or 128,601 mortgages, were for Hispanic borrowers, and 12.08%, or 92,622 mortgages, were for Black borrowers. In the past four years under the Biden-Harris admin- istration, FHA has served more than 1.2 million borrowers who self-identi- fied as borrowers of color. • Helping Homeowners Facing Hardships: Approximately 332,000 homeowners with FHA-insured mortgages requested and received for the first time an FHA forbearance—a temporary pause or reduction in their mortgage payment—in fiscal year 2024. FHA helped more than 592,000 borrowers this past fiscal year to stay in their homes through FHA home retention solutions. This is in addition to the 2.7 million forbearances granted and 1.7 million home retention solu- tions offered since 2020. • Delinquency Rate: As of Sep- tember 30, 2024, FHA's serious delinquency rate—those mortgages where the borrower is 90 or more days behind on their mortgage pay- ment—remained consistent with pre-pandemic levels at 4.15%. This is an increase of less than one percent- age point from the rate's historical low of 3.52 percent in May 2024, but down 7.75 percentage points from its high of 11.90% in November 2020. • Capital Ratio: The MMI Fund showed very strong performance in fiscal year 2024, with an overall capi- tal ratio of 11.47 % as of September 30, 2024, an increase of 0.96 percentage points from fiscal year-end 2023. The stand-alone capital ratio of the forward mortgage portfolio stood at 10.88 percent. The FHA Home Eq- uity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) portfolio stand-alone capital ratio stood at 24.50 percent. • MMI Fund Capital: The MMI Fund now holds $173 billion in MMI Capi- tal, a $27.5 billion increase from fiscal year 2023. FHA's Insurance in Force