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Freddie Sees Loan Purchases Drop Dramatically

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

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