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| Monthly secondary purchases have not been this high at Freddie Mac in more than five years — though the same could be said about residential delinquency. Even multifamily delinquency, which had been immune to increases, was up for the third consecutive month.First quarter purchases and issuances were $147.8 billion at the secondary lender, nearly doubling from the fourth-quarter’s $75.9 billion, according to a monthly volume summary released today. Business was also better than $134.4 billion during the first-quarter 2008.
During just March, volume at the government-run organization was $86.1 billion, more than twice as much as February’s $40.1 billion and higher than $54.6 billion a year earlier. The last time monthly business was this high was at the peak of the refinance wave in September 2003, when $90.9 billion in volume was generated. Freddie said its total mortgage portfolio climbed to $2.247 trillion on March 31 from $2.208 trillion on Feb. 28. The components of the massive portfolio were $1.379 in outstanding participation certificates and an owned portfolio of $0.867 trillion. Residential delinquency of at least 90 days — which had already reached a record in February at 2.13 percent — climbed to 2.29 percent in March. On March 31, 2008, the rate was just 0.77 percent. Multifamily delinquency of at least three months was 0.09 percent last month, rising for the third consecutive month. Late payments were higher than 0.08 percent in February and 0.01 percent the previous year. |
