Secondary acquisitions at the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. climbed to the highest level since 2010, while delinquency fell again and now stands at the lowest level in seven months.
Purchases and issuances at the McLean, Va.-based company came in at $41.999 billion during March. It was the third consecutive monthly increase and the best month since December 2010’s $49.731 billion.
Business grew from $37.633 billion in February. Activity was also up from March 2011, when volume was $26.911 billion.
During the first quarter, according to a monthly operational report, purchases and issuances totaled $114.013 billion. The last time quarterly volume was this high at Freddie Mac was during the fourth-quarter 2010, when purchases and issuances amounted to $135.4 billion. Secondary activity was better than $102.2 billion in the fourth quarter of last year and $104.7 billion in first quarter of last year.
As of March 31, the total mortgage portfolio stood at $2.0565 trillion, less than $2.0614 billion at the end of February and $2.1435 trillion at the same point in 2011. Last month’s total reflected an $0.6183 trillion mortgage portfolio and $1.4382 trillion in outstanding participation certificates.
Delinquency of at least three months on residential loans fell to 3.51 percent from February’s 3.57 percent and March of last year’s 3.63 percent. Last month’s rate was the lowest level of home-loan delinquency since September 2011, when the rate was also 3.51 percent.
On the commercial real estate side, 60-day multifamily delinquency climbed to 0.23 percent from 0.21 percent but was better than 0.36 percent in March 2011. It was the first time CRE late payments have increased since July 2011.
