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