Freddie Mac’s [1] total mortgage portfolio has increased once again, this time rising at an annualized rate of 1.8 percent for the month, according to the government-sponsored entity’s May 2017 Monthly Volume Summary [2] released today. That’s up from the 0.5 percent jump the portfolio experienced in April.
Still, despite the uptick, Freddie’s growth rate pales in comparison to a few months prior. In March, the portfolio rose at an annualized rate of 4.8 percent, in December of 2016, it jumped 10 percent over the year.
In total, Freddie completed $28.5 billion in mortgage purchases and issuances, $2.4 billion in sales, and $23 billion in liquidations in May. Its mortgage portfolio ended the month with a total balance of just more than $2 trillion.
The total aggregate unpaid principal balance of Freddie’s mortgage-related investments portfolio dropped by $7.1 billion, while its mortgage-related securities and guarantees rose at an annualized rate of 4.2 percent. As a part of its mortgage-related investments portfolio, the GSE completed $17 billion in purchases, $20 billion in sales, and $4 billion in liquidations. The ending balance on the portfolio came in at $282 billion—about $7 billion under the previous month.
Under its mortgage-related securities and guarantees portfolio, Freddie completed $27 billion in issuances and $21 billion in liquidations. The ending balance rose $6 billion over the month, closing out with an ending balance of $1.8 trillion.
For the month of May, Freddie’s total volume for single-family refinance loan purchases and guarantees came out to $9.4 billion, equaling about 40 percent of the company’s total single-family portfolio—a share that has remained steady since April. Relief mortgages accounted for 8 percent of Freddie’s total refinance volume for the month—down from 9 percent in April.
The GSE completed 3,559 single-family loan modifications for the month—down from April’s 4,588. To date, Freddie has completed just over 20,000 modifications to date this year.
Overall, the company’s seriously delinquent rate on single-family loans dropped from 0.92 percent to 0.87 percent. Multifamily delinquencies declined from 0.03 percent in April to 0.01 percent in May.
The GSE has funded $155 billion in mortgages year-to-date.