New business at the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. fell to the lowest level since just after it was seized by the government. Loan performance, however, continued to improve.
During January, purchases and issuances at the McLean, Va.-based firm were $20.298 billion.
The last time business was this slow was in October 2008, when secondary activity totaled $19,279 billion.
Freddie Mac was seized by the Federal Housing Finance Agency in September 2008.
New business was $25.434 billion in the final month of last year and $43.119 billion in the first month of last year.
The total mortgage portfolio fell to $1.9116 trillion at the end of last month from $1.9147 trillion at the end of last year. The total was also down from January 2013, when the balance was $1.9484 trillion.
The Jan. 31, 2014, total included an $0.4539 trillion mortgage investment portfolio and $1.4577 trillion in mortgage-related securities and other guarantee commitments.
One good piece of news for the secondary lender was continued improvement in loan performance.
On residential loans, the rate of 90-day delinquency fell to 2.34 percent from 2.39 percent in December. At the same point in 2013, the 90-day rate was 3.20 percent.
Home loan delinquency has not been this low since March 2009, when it stood at 2.29 percent, and has not risen since September 2012, when the rate was 3.37 percent.
Sixty-day delinquency on multifamily loans declined to 0.05 percent from 0.09 percent and was 0.18 percent a year earlier.
