Freddie Mac has released its Monthly Volume Summary [1] for February 2019, which provides information on the GSE’s mortgage-related portfolios, securities issuance, risk management, delinquencies, debt activities, and other investments.
According to the Summary, Freddie Mac’s total mortgage portfolio increased at an annualized rate of 3.0 percent in February 2019, while mortgage-related securities and other mortgage-related investments increased at an annualized rate of 2.7 percent that month. Freddie Mac’s aggregate unpaid principal balance on its mortgage-related portfolio increased by around $200 million in February.
Additionally, Freddie Mac noted that its single-family serious delinquency rate dropped by one basis point month over month, down from 70 basis points in January to 69 basis points in February. Since the start of conservatorships in September 2008, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have completed a total of 4,283,836 foreclosure prevention actions, according to the Q4 2018 Foreclosure Prevention Report from the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA). In Q4 2018 alone, the GSEs completed 41,062 foreclosure prevention actions. According to the FHFA, 3,591,985 of the foreclosure prevention actions completed since 2008 have been resulted in homeowners staying in their homes, while 2,314,121 actions have been permanent loan modifications.
According the the report, both Fannie and Freddie have seen their mortgage performance improved overall as of Q4 2018: the percentage of 60+ days delinquent loans dropped from 1.13 percent at the end of the third quarter to 1.08 percent at the end of the fourth quarter. Additionally, the Fannie and Freddie's serious (90 days or more) delinquency rate decreased to 0.73 percent at the end of the fourth quarter. This compared with 3.8 percent for Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loans, 2.0 percent for Veterans Affairs (VA) loans, and 2.1percent for all loans. Foreclosure starts increased 11 percent to 36,002 while third-party and foreclosure sales decreased 8 percent to 11,510 in the Q4 2018.
Q4 2018 also saw 1,781 completed short sales and deeds-in-lieu, which brings Fannie and Freddie's total to 691,851.
"The number of completed short sales and deeds-in-lieu decreased 18 percent in the fourth quarter compared with the third quarter of 2018," the FHFA stated. "These foreclosure alternatives help to reduce the severity of losses resulting from a borrower’s default and minimize the impact of foreclosures on borrowers, communities, and neighborhoods."