FHFA Says Nearly 44,000 Troubled Homeowners Assisted During 4Q2023
(Federal Housing Finance Agency logo courtesy FHFA)
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac completed 43,903 foreclosure prevention actions during the fourth quarter, raising the number of homeowners who have been helped to 6.9 million since the conservatorships started in 2008, the Federal Housing Finance Agency reported.
The agency’s fourth quarter 2023 Foreclosure Prevention and Refinance Report also found that 31 percent of loan modifications completed in the fourth quarter reduced borrowers’ monthly payments by more than 20 percent. The number of refinances decreased from 83,522 in the third quarter to 71,378 in the fourth quarter of 2023.
The enterprises’ serious delinquency rate increased slightly from 0.54 percent to 0.55 percent at year-end, FHFA noted. This compares with 3.42 percent for Federal Housing Administration loans, 2.01 percent for Veterans Affairs loans and 1.52 percent for all loans (industry average).
Other highlights from the report include:
Forbearance: At the end of the year, there were 42,194 loans in forbearance, representing approximately 0.14 percent of the enterprises’ single-family conventional book of business, down from 47,672 or 0.15 percent at the end of the third quarter of 2023. “Approximately 2 percent of these loans have been on a forbearance plan for more than 12 months,” FHFA said.
Mortgage Performance: The 60-plus day delinquency rate increased slightly from 0.73 percent at the end of the third quarter to 0.77 percent at the end of the fourth quarter of 2023.
Foreclosures: The number of foreclosure starts decreased 4 percent to 18,731 while third-party and foreclosure sales fell 9 percent to 3,282 in the fourth quarter.
Real Estate Owned Activity & Inventory: The enterprises’ REO inventory decreased 1.1 percent from 11,019 in the third quarter to 10,902 in the fourth quarter of 2023 “as property dispositions outpaced acquisitions,” the report said. The total number of property acquisitions decreased 6 percent to 1,475, while dispositions fell slightly to 1,567 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.
