Monthly refinances of government-sponsored enterprise mortgages plunged to the lowest level in six months as government-supported refinance volume fell to a new low.
Primary originators of single-family loans closed 123,170 Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac refinances during the first month of this year — the fewest since there were 109,199 in July 2017.
2017
GSE mortgage refinances numbered 155,910 in the final month of last year, while the
total came to 208,699 during the first month of 2017.
Fannie’s and Freddie’s regulator and conservator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, reported the data.
The retreat in refinances came as mortgage rates in January climbed to their highest levels since March 2017, according to data from Freddie.
Refinances of Washington-based Fannie’s mortgages made up 81,220 of the latest total, while 41,950 of McLean, Virginia-based Freddie’s loans were refinanced.
January 2018 production included 1,557 loans refinanced through the
Home Affordable Refinance Program — which expires at the end of this year. Volume was the lowest of any month since HARP went live in April 2009.
HARP originations were 2,002 in December 2017 and
4,553 in January 2017.
Life-to-date HARP production came to 3,485,583 transactions as of the most-recent month.
Of those, 2.455 million had loan-to-value ratios of no more than 105 percent, 0.595 million had LTV ratios greater than 105 percent and up to 125 percent, and 0.435 million had ratios in excess of 125 percent.
