More housing units were financed by the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. during the latest quarter. Earnings rose on a legal settlement.
During the three months that ended on Sept. 30, pre-tax income was $7.2 billion, according to Freddie Mac’s third-quarter earnings report.
Income at the McLean, Virginia-based secondary lender ascended from the
same quarter last year, when $3.3 billion was earned.
In the preceding three-month period, income was $2.5 billion.
Aiding the improvement in earnings was a $2.9 billion after-tax settlement.
Freddie’s regulator and conservator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, announced in July a settlement with Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc of which $4.5 billion went to Freddie.
In all Freddie said it provided around $299 billion in liquidity to the mortgage market during all nine months of 2017 that have concluded.
During just the third quarter, 567,000 housing units were financed, more than 497,000 units three months earlier. The latest total included 134,000 single-family refinances, 235,000 single-family purchase-money transactions and 198,000 multifamily units.
Since being forced into conservatorship in September 2008, Freddie has paid out $110.1 billion in dividends to the Department of the Treasury. Another $5.3 billion in dividends is expected to be paid
in December.
Draws from the Treasury during that same period amounted to $71.3 billion.
