However, there’s a catch to the Ginnie number. Servicers of government product, especially depositories with a balance sheet, increasingly are buying delinquent FHA and VA loans out of MBS pools as a way to save money and possibly rehabilitate them down the road.
There’s a big disparity between default rates on Fannie/Freddie loans and government-insured loans in Ginnie MBS. The combined total delinquencies for the government-sponsored enterprises was 4.13%, compared with Ginnie’s 10.81%.