After years of lobbying by the mortgage industry, Congress gave Ginnie Mae’s budget a boost for fiscal year 2024.

President Joe Biden last week proposed a mortgage tax credit of $400 a month for up to two years to help borrowers buy their first homes.

FHA Commissioner Julia Gordon said FHA loans don’t take longer to close than other loans.

Lower-income households with mortgages have to make difficult budget choices to accommodate the resumption of student loan payments, new research showed. Overall, though, the payment restart is expected to have modest effects on mortgage performance.

According to an analysis by Inside MBS & ABS, $1.88 billion of VA rate/term refinance loans were included in Ginnie MBS issued in February 2024, compared with $298.5 million in January.

Prepayments on VA loans in Ginnie MBS jumped in February and will likely remain elevated in March. It’s a recurrence of an ongoing problem for Ginnie and VA: streamlined refinance business.

Ginnie Mae last week announced revisions to its issuer eligibility requirements to participate in its manufactured housing MBS program.

The six-bill appropriations package, which includes FY2024 funding for the departments of Housing and Urban Development and Veterans Affairs, now heads to the Senate.

The Mortgage Bankers Association has opposed the extension of the risk-sharing program, which provides capital to housing finance agencies that offer FHA loans for affordable multifamily rental properties.

Combined, FHA and VA lending declined by 17.7% in the fourth quarter.