Fannie Mae's final multifamily mortgage-backed securities issuance numbers for 2011 are in and they reflect a nearly 50% increase from the previous year, according to an executive at the government-sponsored enterprise.
"We didn't see liquidity dry up over yearend as we sometimes do, so I think that's a real positive for the market," Kimberly Johnson, vice president of multifamily capital markets at Fannie, told National Mortgage News when asked what the flow of issuance in 2011 was like. Total new multifamily issuance for 2011 was generally in the range previously expected at $23.8 billion, up from $16.4 billion in 2010. Fannie Mae also resecuritized $6 billion of delegated underwriting and servicing MBS through its Fannie Mae Guaranteed Multifamily Structures program in 2011.
GeMS issuance was somewhat steady throughout the course of last year, with a fairly large amount in the second half, Johnson said. She said that she expects an increased number of larger GeMS deals this year and that there will be more regular monthly issuance. Right now it looks like new issue DUS will probably be in the same range in 2012, according to Johnson.
