FHFA: GSEs Completed 47,370 Foreclosure Prevention Actions During Second Quarter

(Courtesy FHFA)

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac completed 47,370 foreclosure prevention actions during the second quarter, raising the total number of homeowners helped to 6.8 million since the conservatorships started in 2008, the Federal Housing Finance Agency reported.

FHFA released its second quarter 2023 Foreclosure Prevention and Refinance Report Thursday.

The report said 33 percent of loan modifications completed in the first quarter reduced borrowers’ monthly payments by more than 20 percent. The number of refinances increased from 78,445 in the first quarter of 2023 to 93,952 in the second quarter of 2023.

The GSEs’ serious delinquency rate declined slightly from 0.60 percent to 0.55 percent at the end of the first quarter. This compares with 3.71 percent for Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loans, 2.15 percent for Veterans Affairs (VA) loans, and 1.61 percent for all loans (industry average).

Other highlights from the report include:

Forbearance: There were 54,109 loans in forbearance at the end of the quarter, representing approximately 0.17 percent of the GSEs’ single-family conventional book of business, down from 65,109 or 0.21 percent at the end of the first quarter. Approximately 2 percent of these loans have been on a forbearance plan for more than 12 months.

Mortgage Performance: The 60-plus day delinquency rate decreased slightly from 0.75 percent at the end of the first quarter of 2023 to 0.72 percent at the end of the second quarter.

Foreclosures: The number of foreclosure starts decreased 10 percent to 17,919 while third-party and foreclosure sales rose 2 percent to 3,783 in the second quarter.

​Real Estate Owned Activity & Inventory: The GSEs’ REO inventory decreased 1.2 percent from 11,190 in the first quarter of 2023 to 11,061 in the second quarter of 2023, as property dispositions outpaced acquisitions. The total number of property acquisitions decreased slightly to 1,639, while dispositions rose 16 percent to 1,767 during the quarter.

​​FHFA’s quarterly foreclosure prevention and refinance reports include data on the GSEs’ 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 Assist​​ance Map​.​