Nearly 6.5 million troubled homeowners helped since conservatorship
The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) today released its first quarter 2022 Foreclosure Prevention and Refinance Report. The report shows that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (the Enterprises) completed 129,779 foreclosure prevention actions during the quarter, raising the total number of homeowners who have been helped to 6,494,057 since the start of conservatorships in September 2008.
The report also shows that 75 percent of loan modifications completed in the first quarter reduced borrowers’ monthly payments by more than 20 percent. The number of refinances decreased amid rising mortgage rates from 1,266,043 in the fourth quarter to 899,518 in the first quarter.
The Enterprises’ serious delinquency rate declined from 1.19 percent to 0.97 percent at the end of the first quarter. This compares with 5.33 percent for Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loans, 3.15 percent for Veterans Affairs (VA) loans, and 2.39 percent for all loans (industry average).
Other highlights from the report include:
- Forbearance: As of March 31, 2022, there were 126,758 loans in forbearance, representing approximately 0.41 percent of the Enterprises single-family conventional book of business, down from 178,019 or 0.59 percent at the end of the fourth quarter of 2021. About 18 percent of these loans have been on the plan for more than 12 months.
- Mortgage Performance: The 60+ days delinquency rate dropped from 1.34 percent at the end of the fourth quarter to 1.11 percent at the end of the first quarter of 2022. The delinquency rates remained higher than pre-coronavirus rates due to the forbearance programs offered to borrowers affected by the pandemic.
- Foreclosures: The number of foreclosure starts more than tripled to 20,624 while third-party and foreclosure sales decreased 5 percent to 3,054 in the first quarter.
- Real Estate Owned (REO) Activity & Inventory: The Enterprises’ REO inventory increased 3 percent from 8,781 in the fourth quarter to 9,048 in the first quarter of 2022, as REO acquisitions outpaced property dispositions. The total number of property acquisitions decreased 15 percent to 1,480, while dispositions increased 27 percent to 1,255 during the quarter.
FHFA’s quarterly foreclosure prevention and refinance reports include data on the Enterprises’ mortgage performance, delinquencies, and active forbearance plans, as well as forfeiture actions and refinances by state. The data included in these reports are also available on FHFA’s website as an interactive Borrower Assistance Map.