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» VISIT US ONLINE @ DSNEWS.COM 17 FREDDIE MAC'S MORTGAGE PORTFOLIO EXPANDS FOR EIGHTH TIME IN NINE MONTHS Freddie Mac's total mortgage portfolio expanded at an annualized rate of 2.2 percent in May up to a balance of about $1.919 trillion, an increase of about $3.5 billion from April, according to Freddie Mac's May 2015 Monthly Volume Summary. May's expansion marked the eighth time in the last nine months the portfolio has expanded. e only month in that time frame the portfolio did not grow was in January, when it contracted at an annualized rate of 0.8 percent. Year-to-date for the first five months of 2015, the portfolio expanded at an average annualized rate of 1.2 percent. e balance of Freddie Mac's total mortgage portfolio has grown from $1.898 trillion up to $1.919 trillion since August 2014. ough the portfolio expanded in eight of the last nine months, May was only the 16th time in the last 65 months that the portfolio expanded dating back to January 2010. e number of homeowners who received permanent loan modifications totaled 5,490 for May, a slight increase from 5,306 in April. With 25,417 modifications to date in 2015, Freddie Mac is averaging 5,083 modifications per month. An average of 5,596 permanent loan mods were completed monthly in 2014. e serious delinquency rate on single- family loans backed by Freddie Mac dipped by another eight basis points from April to May, down to 1.58 percent. is is the lowest serious delinquency rate for Freddie Mac since November 2008, at the onset of the crisis, when the rate was 1.52 percent . e serious delinquency rate on Freddie Mac-backed loans for May was less than half the national average of 3.6 percent reported by CoreLogic in April. "is is good news, meaning that fewer and fewer homeowners with mortgages backed by Freddie Mac are 90-days past due on their mortgage payments or in foreclosure," Freddie Mac wrote on its blog. Single-family refinance loan purchase and guarantee volume totaled $20.1 billion in May, a slight drop from the $21.3 billion reported in April. e percentage of single- family refinance loan purchase and guarantee volume that comprised the total single-family mortgage portfolio fell by 5 percentage points from April to May, down to 61 percent. e percentage of Freddie Mac's total single-family refinance volume in May that was comprised of relief refinance mortgages also remained unchanged month-over-month at 10 percent. Freddie Mac reported the aggregate unpaid principal balance (UPB) of the enterprise's mortgage-related investments portfolio declined by about $9.8 billion in May. Meanwhile, Freddie Mac's mortgage-related securities and other guarantee commitments experienced an annualized rate increase of about 6.5 percent in May. Approximately 250,000 jobs per month were added during the 12-month period from July 2014 to June 2015, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. KNOW THIS

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