& Ginnie Mae: 's Housing Finance Engine
Summary
insured 876,502 home mortgages and Ginnie Mae guaranteed $521.2 billion in mortgage-backed securities in FY2025 -- run on a combined $216 million and 2,020 federal staff in FY2026, about $26.51 for every one of 's 8.1 million insured loans.
What is this organization?
What does it do?
insured 876,502 forward home mortgages in fiscal year 2025⧉, worth $274.76 billion, and 83 percent of its purchase loans went to first-time buyers⧉. Its Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund carries active coverage on 8,147,743 loans -- more than $1.6 trillion in unpaid balances⧉ at an 11.47 percent capital ratio, more than five times the statutory floor. Ginnie Mae turns those insured loans into tradable securities: it guaranteed $521.2 billion in new mortgage-backed securities in FY2025, financing about 1.4 million housing units⧉, and its outstanding guaranty now covers a $2.8 trillion portfolio⧉.
What does it cost to run — money and people?
Congress enacted $160 million for FHA's administrative contract expenses in FY2026⧉, funding the servicing, counseling, and technology contracts behind that loan portfolio; the federal side runs on 1,808 FTE budgeted in HUD's Office of Housing, FHA's home office⧉. Ginnie Mae, self-funded entirely through issuer fees, at no cost to taxpayers⧉, runs on $56 million and 212 FTE enacted for FY2026⧉. Combined: $216 million and 2,020 -- $26.51 for every one of 's 8.1 million insured mortgages.
View data as table
| FHA administrative contract expenses | 160 | funds the servicing, counseling, and technology contracts behind 's insured-loan portfolio |
|---|---|---|
| Ginnie Mae salaries and expenses | 56 | 100% offset by issuer fee collections -- no taxpayer cost |
Why is it good for society?
The mechanism is risk transfer: 's guarantee lets lenders extend credit to buyers who couldn't clear conventional underwriting, and Ginnie Mae's full-faith-and-credit wrapper lets investors buy that risk without pricing in default -- so lenders keep lending and global capital keeps flowing into American mortgages. The counterfactual sits in 's own endorsement history: as private mortgage credit seized up in the 2008 crisis, FHA's forward-mortgage endorsements more than quadrupled, from 424,724 loans in FY2007 to 1,831,998 in FY2009⧉ -- and Ginnie Mae absorbed the credit that private lenders had stopped extending.
- 's 8,147,743-loan insured portfolio and Ginnie Mae's $2.8 trillion guaranty run on a combined $216 million and 2,020 federal/government-corporation in FY2026 -- about $26.51 per insured mortgage, with Ginnie Mae's share funded entirely by issuer fees, not tax dollars.
- 's countercyclical role is on the record, not asserted: forward-mortgage endorsements quadrupled from 424,724 in FY2007 to 1,831,998 in FY2009 as private mortgage credit froze during the financial crisis.
Your handles.* Ask a question or file an issue about an loan through the FHA Resource Center (1-800-CALL-). Struggling to make payments on an -insured mortgage? Start with HUD's Single Family Servicing / National Servicing Center for loss-mitigation options before default. Reach Ginnie Mae directly through its Contact Us page.
Sources(8) ▾
- U.S. Government Publishing Office (govinfo.gov, Statutes at Large), National Housing Act (Public Law 73-479, 48 Stat. 1246) (1934-06-27) — The original enacted text of the National Housing Act, Section 1 of which authorizes the President to create the Federal Housing Administration -- the statutory-creation source for 's identity. A single Wayback capture attempt (web.archive.org/save) returned an HTTP 520 server error consistent with the documented archive.org SPN outage; not retried per standing guidance. govinfo.gov's own link/statute redirect is itself a stable, direct one-click original-document copy. govinfo.gov · original document
- U.S. Government Publishing Office (govinfo.gov, Statutes at Large), Department of Housing and Urban Development Act (Public Law 89-174, 79 Stat. 667) (1965-09-09) — The original enacted text establishing the Cabinet-level Department of Housing and Urban Development, into which the pre-existing Federal Housing Administration was folded. Wayback capture attempted and hit the same archive.org 520 outage; not retried. govinfo.gov · original document
- U.S. Government Publishing Office (govinfo.gov, Statutes at Large), Housing and Urban Development Act of 1968, Title VIII (Public Law 90-448, 82 Stat. 536) (1968-08-01) — Title VIII, Section 801 of the enacted text, which partitions the pre-existing Federal National Mortgage Association into a private, government-sponsored Fannie Mae and a wholly government-owned Government National Mortgage Association (Ginnie Mae) that remained inside -- the statutory-creation source for Ginnie Mae's identity. Wayback capture attempted and hit the same archive.org 520 outage; not retried. govinfo.gov · original document
- U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development / Federal Housing Administration, Annual Report to Congress: Financial Status of the FHA Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund, Fiscal Year 2025 (2025-11-01) — 's statutorily required annual report to Congress on the MMI Fund's financial status -- the source for FY2025 endorsement volume, insurance-in-force, capital ratio, first-time-buyer share, HECM activity, and the historical FY2000-2025 endorsement-count table used for the FY2007-FY2009 countercyclical comparison. Wayback capture attempted and hit the archive.org 520 outage; not retried. hud.gov · original document
- U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, HUD FY2027 Congressional Justification -- Office of Housing, FHA Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund (2026-05-01) — 's FY2027 congressional budget justification chapter for the Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund's administrative contract-expenses account, carrying the FY2026 enacted appropriation -- the budget-authority source for 's administrative funding. Wayback capture attempted and hit the archive.org 520 outage; not retried. hud.gov · original document
- U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, HUD FY2027 Congressional Justification -- Program Offices Salaries and Expenses (2026-05-01) — 's Program Offices Salaries and Expenses chapter, whose 'Projected Onboard Staff Headcount and Utilization' table breaks out FY2025-FY2027 headcount and by office, including the Office of Housing (HSG) -- 's program office that runs . Source for the figure staffing 's federal operations. Wayback capture attempted and hit the archive.org 520 outage; not retried. hud.gov · original document
- U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development / Government National Mortgage Association, HUD FY2027 Congressional Justification -- Government National Mortgage Association, Salaries and Expenses (2026-05-01) — Ginnie Mae's own Salaries and Expenses congressional justification chapter -- source for its FY2026 enacted budget authority, count, and portfolio size/workforce-change narrative. Wayback capture attempted and hit the archive.org 520 outage; not retried. hud.gov · original document
- U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development / Government National Mortgage Association, HUD FY2027 Congressional Justification -- Government National Mortgage Association, Mortgage-Backed Securities Program (2026-05-01) — Ginnie Mae's Program congressional justification chapter -- source for FY2025 issuance volume, housing units supported, first-time-buyer share, and the self-funded/offsetting-receipts workload narrative. Wayback capture attempted and hit the archive.org 520 outage; not retried. hud.gov · original document
Comments
Always open. Logged-in readers can annotate paragraphs in place.
The Federal Housing Administration was created by the National Housing Act of 1934⧉, Title I, to insure private lenders against losses on home mortgages during the Depression-era credit collapse. Congress folded into the new Cabinet department when it created HUD in 1965⧉. Three years later, the Housing and Urban Development Act of 1968⧉ split Fannie Mae in two, keeping the government half inside as the Government National Mortgage Association -- Ginnie Mae -- to guarantee investors' return on -, -, and -insured mortgage bonds.