Foreclosure, modification and short-term delinquency activity in government-sponsored enterprise loans increased during the third quarter as the phaseout of some pandemic-related relief got underway, although long-term distress declined.
Foreclosure starts jumped by 16% from the second quarter, rising to 7,253 from 6,233, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency, the conservator and regulator for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Much of the foreclosure activity allowed to proceed did so with new consumer protections in place.
Mods, in which borrowers with long-term income reductions obtain more affordable loan terms, rose 11% to 17,930 from 16,134. Also, the number of shorter-term delinquencies (60 days or less) grew, rising by 5% to 218,894 from 207,034.
However, the serious delinquency rate dropped to 1.55% from 1.99%, outperforming a 3.40% average for the mortgage market as a whole.
That said, serious delinquencies vary widely across the country, with the numbers in places like
The FHFA also also noted that the third quarter was a slow period for a program aimed at introducing more
Those numbers could potentially grow if Freddie Mac, which the FHFA has called upon to