FHFA Reports More Than 7 Million Foreclosure Prevention Actions During GSE Conservatorships

(Illustration courtesy of FHFA)

The Federal Housing Finance Agency reported that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac completed 46,378 foreclosure prevention actions during the second quarter, raising the total number of homeowners who have been helped to 7,004,262 since the start of conservatorships in September 2008.

FHFA’s Foreclosure Prevention and Refinance Report found that 32% of loan modifications completed in the second quarter reduced borrowers’ monthly payments by 20% or more. The number of refinances increased from 69,877 in the first quarter of 2024 to 89,571 in the second quarter.

The enterprises’ serious delinquency rate declined slightly from 0.51% at the end of the first quarter to 0.49% at the end of the second quarter, the report said. This compares with 3.17% for Federal Housing Administration loans, 2.07% for Veterans Affairs loans and 1.43% for all loans (industry average).

Other highlights from the report include:

Forbearance: At the end of the quarter, there were 31,827 loans in forbearance, representing approximately 0.10% of the enterprises’ single-family conventional book of business, down from 34,348 or 0.11% at the end of the first quarter of 2024. Approximately 1% of these loans have been on a forbearance plan for more than 12 months.

Mortgage Performance: The 60-plus day delinquency rate remained unchanged at 0.70% at the end of the second quarter of 2024 compared to the end of the first quarter.

Foreclosures: The number of foreclosure starts fell 7.0% to 17,339 while third-party and foreclosure sales declined 7.4% to 2,944 in the second quarter.

Real Estate Owned (REO) Activity & Inventory: The Enterprises’ REO inventory decreased 9.2% from 10,404 in the first quarter of 2024 to 9,450 in the second quarter as property dispositions outpaced acquisitions. The total number of property acquisitions decreased 14.2% to 1,200, while dispositions rose to 2,105 during the quarter.