Freddie Mac’s secondary mortgage purchases sank last month, while delinquency surged.
Purchases and issuances were $21.7 billion last month, according to the McLean, Va.-based company’s monthly volume summary released yesterday. Business fell from $29.8 billion in December and $32.1 billion during January 2008.
Activity during the latest month was the lowest since October 2008, when monthly volume of $19.3 billion was the worst since at least February 2001 — the oldest available data at MortgageDaily.com.
Freddie’s total mortgage portfolio was $2.202 trillion on Jan. 31, edging down from $2.207 trillion on Dec. 31 but up from $2.111 trillion a year earlier.
The total portfolio included a mortgage portfolio of $0.799 trillion and outstanding participation certificates of $1.403 trillion.
Residential delinquency of at least 90 days was 1.98 percent at the end of January, surging from 1.72 percent at the end of December and 0.71 percent on Jan. 31, 2008.
Multifamily delinquency of at least 90 days rose to 0.03 percent from December’s 0.01 percent and 0.01 percent at the end of January 2008.
Freddie’s monthly average duration gap ended last month at zero months, down from a positive one month in December.