The Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. turned in a strong performance last month, with secondary activity increasing, the book of business expanding and serious delinquency falling to the lowest level in nearly five years.
Freddie Mac reported that it purchased or issued $25.434 billion in mortgages during December.
Business improved from the previous month, when new business totaled $22.663 billion.
The McLean, Va.-based company, however, fell short of its activity in the final month of 2012, when purchases and issuances added up to $31.288 billion.
On a quarterly basis, volume fell to $70.476 billion in the fourth quarter from $106.420 billion three months earlier and plunged from $146.214 billion a year earlier.
Full-year 2013 purchases and issuances at the secondary lender slipped to $452.941 billion from $455.799 billion in 2012.
Freddie’s massive total mortgage portfolio grew to $1.9147 trillion from $1.9140 trillion at the end of November. But the portfolio was reduced from $1.9563 trillion at the end of 2012.
The latest total included a mortgage-related investment portfolio of $0.4610 trillion and $1.4536 trillion in outstanding mortgage-related securities and other guarantee investments.
Residential loan delinquency of at least 90 days continued to improve, falling to 2.39 percent as of the end of last month from 2.43 percent as of Nov. 30 and 3.20 percent as of Dec. 31, 2012.
The last time serious delinquency was this low was in March 2009, when the rate was just 2.29 percent.
The residential 90-day rate has not increased since September 2012, when it was 3.37 percent.
Multifamily delinquency was a different story, with the 60-day rate jumping to 0.09 percent as of the end of last year from 0.05 percent in November. But the rate on apartment loans was down my more than half from 0.19 percent a year prior.
