Freddie Mac acquired almost $26 billion of residential loans during April, a steep 38% decline from the month prior, a sign that originations may be slowing—or that the GSE is losing business to its cross-town rival.
The purchase volume is the lowest reading since July 2011.
When Bank of America stopped doing business with Fannie Mae earlier this year—except for HARP loans—it was thought that Freddie would benefit, but new reports about better MBS pricing on Fannie product could be spurring more seller/servicers to use Fannie.
In general, origination volumes have been stronger than expected this spring and may even wind up matching last year’s total of $1.45 trillion.
Refinancings comprised 74% of the mortgages Freddie purchased from its lenders in April, compared to 83% in March.
Freddie also reported that it issued $32 billion of MBS in April after issuing $42.5 billion the month prior.
The serious delinquency rate on Freddie’s single-family mortgage portfolio was unchanged at 3.51% for April.
Multifamily delinquencies tied to Freddie Loans rose in April to 0.25%, from 0.23% in March.
Freddie Mac's report also showed that its total mortgage portfolio dropped at an annualized rate of 14.1% in April to $2.03 trillion.
Fannie and Freddie have been wards of the government since September 2008.
— Paul Muolo also contributed to this report
