Monthly refinance activity on government-sponsored enterprise loans was little changed. While government-supported refinances are at their lowest level in more than five years, upside-down borrowers who have successfully refinanced through the program are nearing 1 million.
During July, there were 119,699 Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac residential loans that were refinanced through a primary lender.
Refinance activity at the pair of secondary mortgage lenders was little changed from the previous month, when seller-servicers completed 119,897 transactions.
The origination data was reported by the two companies’ regulator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency.
Activity plummeted, however, from the same month last year, when 360,095 Fannie and Freddie mortgages were refinanced.
At Washington-based Fannie, refinances totaled 75,520, increasing from 72,751 in June.
But McLean, Va.-based Freddie refinances fell to 44,179 during July from 47,146 a month earlier.
GSE refinances completed through the Home Affordable Refinance Program numbered 15,671 during the most-recent month, declining from 17,788 in June and nose diving from 79,236 in July 2013.
The last time HARP activity was this slow was in May 2009, when just 6,000 transactions were completed.
Since the inception of HARP in April 2009, there have been 3,204,597 mortgages refinanced through the Making Home Affordable initiative — including 966,562 with loan-to-value ratios in excess of 100 percent.
