The Federal Housing Finance Agency’s (FHFA) fourth-quarter 2023 Foreclosure Prevention and Refinance Report shows that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac completed 43,903 foreclosure prevention actions during the last three months of 2023, raising the total number of homeowners who have been helped to 6,905,703 since the start of conservatorships in September 2008.
The report also shows 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 of 2023 to 71,378 in the fourth quarter of 2023.
The GSEs’ serious delinquency rate increased slightly from 0.54 percent to 0.55 percent at the end of the fourth quarter. 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 the following:
- Forbearance: At the end of the quarter, there were 42,194 loans in forbearance, representing approximately 0.14 percent of the GSEs’ 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.
- Mortgage performance: The 60+ day delinquency rate increased slightly from 0.73 percent at the end of the third quarter of 2023 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.
- REO activity and inventory: The GSEs’ REO inventory decreased 1.1 percent from 11,019 in the third quarter of 2023 to 10,902 in the fourth quarter of 2023, as property dispositions outpaced acquisitions. The total number of property acquisitions decreased 6 percent to 1,475, while dispositions fell slightly to 1,567 during the quarter.
