Freddie Mac Portfolio Growth Accelerates

Freddie Mac reported this week that its total mortgage portfolio increased at an annualized rate of 7.5 percent in May, increasing from 6.2 percent the previous month.  The portfolio balance at the end of the period was $2.230 trillion compared to $2.216 trillion at the end of April and $2.120 trillion a year earlier.  

Purchases and Issuances totaled $46.082 billion and Sales were ($4.436) billion. The April numbers were $36.071 billion and ($1.204) billion respectively.  The annualized growth rate for the year-to-date is 5.2 percent.

Single-family refinance loan purchase and guarantee volume was $13.3 billion in April, up from 11.2 billion in April and representing the same share of total single-family mortgage portfolio purchases and issuances as the previous month, 37 percent. 

Purchases in Freddie Mac's Mortgage Related Investments Portfolio totaled $29.097 billion for the month compared to $24.896 billion in April. Liquidations were ($2.831) billion and ($2.401) billion for May and April respectively and Sales for the two periods were ($26,797) billion and ($24.948) billion.  The ending balance in the portfolio was $215.955 billion, down $0.5 billion from the balance in April.  The annualized growth rate was (2.9) percent compared to (13.4) percent a year earlier.

The ending balance of the Mortgage Related Investments Portfolio was composed of $121.581 billion in Mortgage Related Securities, Mortgage Loans valued at $86.801 billion, Non-Agency, non-Freddie Mac Mortgage-Related Securities at $2.024 billion; and Agency non-Freddie Mac Mortgage related securities of $5.549 billion. Mortgage related securities and other guarantee commitments increased at an annualized rate of 8.5 percent compared to 7.2 percent the previous month.   

Freddie Mac's single-family delinquency rate dipped 2 basis points (bps) to 0.63 percent. In May 2018 the rate was 0.87 percent.  The rate for credit-enhanced Primary Mortgage Insurance loans declined by 2 bps and the non-credit portion was down 3 bps to 0.77 and 76 percent respectively.  The multi-family delinquency rate was 0.03 percent for the third straight month compared to 0.01 percent in May 2018.