The FHA lost ground to private mortgage insurers in the purchase-mortgage market during the third quarter of 2017, according to an analysis by Inside Mortgage Finance.The government-sponsored enterprises securitized $64.59 billion of purchase mortgages with private MI in the third quarter, up 28.5 percent from the prior quarter. This far greater than the 9.5 percent increase in FHA purchase loans delivered into Ginnie Mae mortgage-backed securities during the same period. Although the FHA program remained a favorite among first-time homebuyers, private mortgage insurers saw a substantial gain in the segment. In the third quarter, first-time homebuyers comprised 74.1 percent of FHA purchase loans, but the dollar volume of such loans pooled in Ginnie MBS rose just 9.1 percent, data showed. On the other hand, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac saw their insured first-timer ...