[1]Freddie Mac [2]'s total mortgage portfolio expanded at an annualized rate of 0.8 percent in April, the seventh time in the past eight months the portfolio has expanded, according to Freddie Mac's April 2015 Monthly Volume Summary [3] released on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the serious delinquency rate on Freddie Mac-backed single-family mortgage loans, dropped by seven basis points down to 1.66 percent, its lowest level since reporting 1.52 percent in November 2008 just as the crisis was beginning.
The expansion of Freddie Mac's portfolio represented an increase of about $1.26 billion, up to nearly $1.916 trillion. Though the portfolio has seen expansion in seven of the last eight months, April was only the 15th time in the last 64 months that the portfolio has expanded dating back to January 2010, at the height of the foreclosure wave.
Single-family refinance loan purchase and guarantee volume shot up to $21.3 billion in April after reporting $19.1 billion in March. The percentage of single-family refinance loan purchase and guarantee volume that comprised the total single-family mortgage portfolio stayed flat from month to month in April, however, at 66 percent. The percentage of Freddie Mac's total single-family refinance volume in April that was comprised of relief refinance mortgages also remained unchanged month-over-month in April at 10 percent.
The number of homeowners who received permanent loan modifications totaled 5,306 for April, a slight increase from 5,144 in March. With 19,927 modifications to date in 2015, Freddie Mac is averaging 4,981 modifications per month. An average of 5,596 permanent loan mods were completed monthly in 2014.
Freddie Mac reported that the aggregate unpaid principal balance (UPB) of the Enterprise's mortgage-related investments portfolio declined by about $6.2 billion in April after increasing by about $1.4 billion from February to March. Meanwhile, Freddie Mac mortgage-related securities and other guarantee commitments saw an annualized rate increase of about 4.2 percent in April.