Fannie Mae Ups Multifamily MBS Issuance
Fannie Mae reports that during the fourth quarter of 2011, it issued $7.2 billion multifamily MBS, the highest quarterly issuance since the GSE started bringing its multifamily MBS business back from a standstill in 2009.
By Dees Stribling, Contributing Editor
Washington, D.C.—Fannie Mae reports that during the fourth quarter of 2011, it issued $7.2 billion multifamily MBS, the highest quarterly issuance since the GSE started bringing its multifamily MBS business back from a standstill in 2009. Total new issuance for 2011 was $23.8 billion, up from $16.4 billion in 2010.
Fannie Mae also resecuritized $6 billion of DUS MBS through its Fannie Mae Guaranteed Multifamily Structures (Fannie Mae GeMS) program in 2011, with $4.4 billion in GeMS REMICs and $1.6 billion in GeMS Megas. About $1.9 billion of that total was during the fourth quarter, including $1.8 billion in GeMS REMICs and $0.1 billion in GeMS Megas.
Tradable float, the volume of securities available to investors, has increased over the past few years. Fannie Mae’s multifamily MBS outstanding is now over $100 billion. According to the GSE, as volumes increase and liquidity rises, it expects market participants will focus on agency multifamily securities in the coming year.
Recently Fannie Mae priced 2012-M1, its first Multifamily DUS REMIC in 2012 totaling $763 million, under the GeMS program. Kimberly Johnson, vice president of multifamily capital markets at the company, reported that a “full spectrum of investors came out of the gate with orders,” and that 2012-M1 was oversubscribed. She expects continuing demand for GeMS during this year.
The GSE remains the leader in financing U.S. multifamily mortgages, despite talk of “winding down” it and Freddie Mac. And their loan volume is still going up: according to the Mortgage Bankers Association, the GSEs saw an increase in loan volume of 32 percent between the second and third quarters of 2011, the most recent period for which numbers are available.
