The monthly number of government-sponsored enterprise-backed mortgages that were refinanced increased thanks to a spike at the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp.
During February, loan originators refinanced 188,455 Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans, according to data provided by the Federal Housing Finance Agency.
GSE refinances
accelerated compared to the previous month, when 152,411 Fannie and Freddie refinance transactions were reported.
Activity even increased from the same month in 2014, when refinances totaled 127,356.
February 2015’s transactions included 99,141 refinances of Fannie loans, moving up from 95,861 a month earlier and 81,413 a year earlier.
But the latest overall action was driven by Freddie, where refinances shot up to 89,314 from 56,550 in January.
Production was also better than in February 2014, when there were 45,943 Freddie loans refinanced.
Loans refinanced through the Home Affordable Refinance program
totaled 10,673 in February of this year, edging up from 10,591 the prior month.
HARP activity, however, has plummeted from February 2014, when the total was 26,964.
The have been 3.3 million HARP transactions since the program launched in April 2009.
