After jumping by more than a third in August, secondary activity at Freddie Mac was up another 16 percent last month. Delinquency was in line with an industry-wide uptick.
The McLean, Va.-based company’s purchases and issuances were $32.3 billion during September. Business improved from $27.7 billion a month earlier and was higher for the second consecutive month.
Freddie disclosed the results in a monthly operational summary.
The strong performance at the government-controlled enterprise is being supported by elevated refinance activity at primary mortgage lenders. A number of major lenders reported that loan applications strengthened in the third quarter, indicating that another month of improvement might be ahead for Freddie.
Purchases and issuances at Freddie were stronger in September 2010, when volume totaled $39.9 billion.
On a quarterly basis, volume climbed to $80.7 billion in the third quarter from $73.4 billion three months earlier but was lower than $97.4 billion a year earlier.
From Jan. 1 through Sept. 30, secondary business amounted to $258.8 billion.
The total mortgage portfolio continued to diminish, falling to $2.1142 trillion from $2.1169 trillion on Aug. 31. The Sept. 30 figure reflected an $0.6791 trillion investment portfolio and $1.4350 trillion in outstanding participation certificates.
Home-loan delinquency of at least three months was 3.51 percent last month at Freddie, inching up from the previous month’s 3.49 percent.
Freddie’s 2-basis-point deterioration was less severe than the 7-basis-point jump reported by Standard &Â Poor’s for first-mortgage delinquency of at least 90 days in September. Lender Processing Services Inc. released data indicating that 30-day delinquency, including foreclosures, was 3 BPS higher last month.
At Freddie, residential delinquency was 29 BPS better than 3.80 percent in September 2010.
Multifamily delinquency of at least 60 days was 0.33 percent last month, 2 BPS lower than August and 2 BPS higher than a year prior.
