Secondary activity sank at Freddie Mac as record delinquency continued higher. One bright spot, however, was the degree to which delinquency deteriorated.
February purchases and issuances were $29.2 billion, according to a monthly volume summary released today. Business was down 20 percent from January and off more than a quarter from February 2009.
Year-to-date 2009, volume totaled $65.8 billion.
Freddie, which was delayed in getting out the latest data, said its total mortgage portfolio finished February at $2.2426 trillion, nearly $5 billion less than at January’s end but higher than $2.2079 trillion on Feb. 28, 2009.
The latest total reflected an $0.7322 trillion investment portfolio and $1.5103 trillion in outstanding participation certificates.
Residential delinquency of at least 90 days, which has been reaching a new record every month, climbed to 4.08 percent from 4.03 percent in January. A year earlier, the rate of late payments was 4.54 percent.
While February delinquency was the highest on record for the government-controlled enterprise, the monthly increase was just 5 basis points compared to the 16-basis-point increase during January and a similar pace set during recent prior months.
Multifamily delinquency of at least 90 days edged up to 0.17 percent from January’s 0.15 percent and February 2009’s 0.08 percent.
