WASHINGTON, D.C.– The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) released its fourth quarter 2019 Foreclosure Prevention and Refinance Report, which shows that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (the Enterprises) completed 25,930 foreclosure prevention actions during that 90-day period.
That brought the number of troubled homeowners who have been helped during conservatorships to 4.407 million.
The report also shows that nearly 40% of loan modifications completed in the fourth quarter reduced borrowers’ monthly payments by more than 20%.
The Enterprises’ serious delinquency rate (90 days or more in arrears) remained unchanged from the third quarter at 0.65% at the end of the fourth quarter. This compares with 3.47% for Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loans, 1.92% for Veterans Affairs (VA) loans, and 1.76% for all loans (industry average).
The report also showed a jump in refinances: from 540,578 in the third quarter to 728,842 in the fourth quarter.