The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) has released its fourth-quarter 2021 Foreclosure Prevention and Refinance Report. The report shows that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac completed 153,793 foreclosure prevention actions during the quarter, raising the total number of homeowners who have been helped to 6,364,278 since the start of conservatorships in September 2008.
The report also shows that 46% of loan modifications completed in the fourth quarter reduced borrowers’ monthly payments by more than 20%. The number of refinances decreased slightly from 1.286 million in the third quarter to 1.266 million in the fourth quarter.
The GSEs’ serious delinquency rate dropped from 1.55% to 1.19% at the end of the fourth quarter. This compares with 6.48% for Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loans, 3.82% for Veterans Affairs (VA) loans, and 2.83% for all loans (industry average).
The total number of loans in forbearance plans continued to trend downward since its peak in May 2020 but remained elevated through the fourth quarter of 2021 compared with pre-pandemic levels. As of December 31, 2021, there were 178,019 loans in forbearance, representing approximately 0.59% of the enterprises’ single-family conventional book of business, down from 320,009 or 1.07% at the end of the third quarter.
The 60+ days delinquency rate dropped from 1.69% at the end of the third quarter to 1.34% at the end of the fourth quarter. The delinquency rates remained elevated as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and the forbearance programs offered to affected borrowers.
The number of foreclosure starts decreased 15% to 6,178, while third-party and foreclosure sales rose 27% to 3,213 in the fourth quarter.
The GSEs’ real estate owned (REO) activity and inventory increased 10% from 8,001 in the third quarter to 8,781 in the fourth quarter, as REO acquisitions outpaced property dispositions. The total number of property acquisitions increased 29% to 1,751, while dispositions decreased 17% to 991 during the quarter.
Image: “Foreclosure” by BasicGov is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0
