For the fourth month in a row, government-sponsored enterprise refinances rose, and the Federal National Mortgage Association was behind the latest increase.
During June, there were approximately 177,090 Fannie Mae and
Freddie Mac mortgages refinanced, according to an analysis of quarterly data on GSE refinances.
Refinance volume ascended compared to 173,217 in the previous month and has moved higher every month since February, when the total came to 130,076.
In June last year, GSE refinances totaled a downwardly revised 198,502.
The most-recent month included 106,499 Fannie refinances, more than 101,204 in May.
But refinances of loans backed by the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. fell to 70,591 in June from 72,013.
Refinances of GSE loans through the Home Affordable Refinance Program totaled 5,872 in June 2016, fewer than 6,091 a month earlier and 9,426 a year earlier.
It was the slowest month on record for HARP activity since at least July 2013 — the oldest data maintained by Mortgage Daily.
The Federal Housing Finance Agency, which released the data in Refinance Report Second Quarter 2016, noted in an accompanying announcement, “While total refinance volume increased in June, as mortgage interest rates edged lower, HARP refinances represented only 4 percent of total refinances, the lowest percentage since the second quarter of 2009 when the program was first launched.”
HARP is funded through the
Troubled Asset Relief Program, which in turn was created through the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008.
There have been 3,418,854 loans refinanced through the program since HARP went live on April 1, 2009.
FHFA said that there are still more than 323,000 eligible borrowers who could benefit from HARP — which expires at the end of this year.
“These so called ‘in-the-money’ borrowers meet the basic HARP eligibility requirements, have a remaining balance of $50,000 or more on their mortgage, have a remaining term on their loan of greater than 10 years, and their mortgage interest rate is at least 1.5 percent higher than current market rates,” FHFA stated. “These borrowers could save, on average, $2,400 per year by refinancing their mortgage through HARP.”
