Ginnie Mae guaranteed $24.1 billion in mortgage-backed securities for March, an 8% dip from the month before. Ginnie guarantees the principal and interest payments to investors of MBS. The Federal Housing Administration or the Department of Veterans Affairs usually insure the underlying loans. Issuance of Ginnie Mae I single-family pools, which are single-issuer securities made up of mortgages with the same interest rate, reached $6 billion in March down from $7.6 billion in February. Ginnie Mae II single-family pools totaled $15.8 billion last month down from $16.4 billion the prior month. The only product to increase in March was pools of reverse mortgages. HECM MBS, or HMBS, totaled more than $940 million in March, up from roughly $890 million the month before. Ginnie Mae multifamily issuance totaled $1.32 billion. With the private-label market still quiet since the financial collapse of 2008, government-financed mortgages continue to prop up the market. Market share for the FHA alone rose to 37% in 2009 from 3% in 2005. “The continued strong performance of the Ginnie Mae MBS reinforces the value of our full faith and credit guarantee and our solid execution to issuers and investors,” said Ginnie Mae President Ted Tozer. “This stability is important as the housing finance industry, and the overall economy, continues to move toward a solid recovery.” Write to Jon Prior. Follow him on Twitter @JonAPrior.