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Freddie Mac's total mortgage portfolio expanded at an annualized rate of 2.2 percent in May up to a balance of about $1.919 trillion, an increase of about $3.5 billion from April, according to Freddie Mac's May 2015 Monthly Volume Summary.
May's expansion marked the eighth time in the last nine months the portfolio has expanded. The only month in that time frame the portfolio did not grow was in January, when it contracted at an annualized rate of 0.8 percent. Year-to-date for the first five months of 2015, the portfolio has expanded at an average annualized rate of 1.2 percent.
The balance of Freddie Mac's total mortgage portfolio has grown from $1.898 trillion up to $1.919 trillion since August 2014. Though the portfolio has seen expansion in eight of the last nine months, May was only the 16th time in the last 65 months that the portfolio has expanded dating back to January 2010.
The number of homeowners who received permanent loan modifications totaled 5,490 for May, a slight increase from 5,306 in April. With 25,417 modifications to date in 2015, Freddie Mac is averaging 5,083 modifications per month. An average of 5,596 permanent loan mods were completed monthly in 2014.
The serious delinquency rate on single-family loans backed by Freddie Mac dipped by another eight basis points from April to May, down to 1.58 percent. It is the lowest serious delinquency rate for Freddie Mac since November 2008, at the onset of the crisis, when 1.52 percent was reported. The serious delinquency rate on Freddie Mac-backed loans for May was less than half of the national average of 3.6 percent reported by CoreLogic in April.
"This is good news, meaning that fewer and fewer homeowners with mortgages backed by Freddie Mac are 90-days past due on their mortgage payments or in foreclosure," Freddie Mac wrote on its blog.
Single-family refinance loan purchase and guarantee volume totaled $20.1 billion in May, a slight drop from the $21.3 billion that was reported in April. The percentage of single-family refinance loan purchase and guarantee volume that comprised the total single-family mortgage portfolio fell by 5 percentage points from April to May, from 66 percent down to 61 percent. The percentage of Freddie Mac's total single-family refinance volume in May that was comprised of relief refinance mortgages also remained unchanged month-over-month at 10 percent.
Freddie Mac reported that the aggregate unpaid principal balance (UPB) of the Enterprise's mortgage-related investments portfolio declined by about $9.8 billion in May. Meanwhile, Freddie Mac's mortgage-related securities and other guarantee commitments saw an annualized rate increase of about 6.5 percent in May.
