Business Declines for Fifth Straight Month at Freddie Mac

After posting its greatest pace of decline so far this year in October, Freddie Mac's book of business declined at its slowest rate since July last month. Freddie Mac's total book of business decreased at an annualized rate of 2 percent in November compared to an annualized rate of 6.4 percent in October, according to the GSE's latest ""monthly volume report."":http://www.freddiemac.com/investors/volsum/pdf/1113mvs.pdf

Nonetheless, November marks five consecutive months of decline, bringing Freddie's book of business down from $1.92 trillion to $1.91 trillion.

Year-to-date, Freddie's book of business has declined at a rate of 2.4 percent.

Total purchases and issuances for the month came to $22.7 billion, down from $22.4 billion the previous month.

Fifty-three percent of the GSE's single-family mortgage purchases or issuances in November were refinances, totaling $11 billion based on unpaid principal balance.

Relief refinances made up 40 percent of Freddie Mac's single-family refinance volume in November.

Freddie Mac also took on $2 billion in new business in the multifamily sector, bringing its total multifamily activity this year to $22.1 billion, based on unpaid principal balance.

The delinquency rates for Freddie Mac's single-family and multifamily portfolios both declined in November.

The single-family delinquency rate in November was 2.43 percent, down from 2.48 percent in October.

Among the multifamily portfolio, the delinquency rate was 0.05 percent, down from 0.06 percent the previous month.

Freddie Mac completed a little more than 8,000 loan modifications in November, bringing the year-to-date total to 76,457.