Freddie Mac said today that its total mortgage portfolio increased by $951 million in April to $1.949 trillion, an increase of 0.6 percent.  This was the second straight month the portfolio has increased.  Purchases totaled $47.3 billion compared to $52.0 billion in March, liquidations were ($45.7) compared to ($44.85) billion and sales were ($627) million, up from ($617) million.   The year to date growth in that portfolio is (1.1) percent and the annualized liquidation rate is 29.2 percent.

The Mortgage-Related Investments Portfolio declined from an unpaid principal balance of $534.2 billion in March to 528.3 billion in April, a change of 13.2 percent.  Purchases totaled $15.0 billion compared to $13.57 billion in March.  Liquidations increased from ($10.10) billion the month before to ($10.5) billion and sales decreased from ($12.01) billion to ($10.4) billion.  Year to date purchases total $57.59 billion, liquidations ($42.11) billion, and sales ($44.76) billion for an annual growth year-to-date of (15.8) percent.

The company's Mortgage Related Securities and Other Guarantee Commitments had an ending balance of $1.60 trillion, an annualized increase of 4.1 percent.

The Mortgage-Related Investments Portfolio consists of $177.32 billion of PCs REMICs and other structured securities, $20.81 billion in Agency Securities, $119.73 billion Non-Agency Securities, and $210.41 billion in mortgage loans. The ending balance of the Mortgage-Related Investments Portfolio was $528.3 billion, a decrease of $5.9 billion since March.

The overall delinquency rate in Freddie Mac's portfolios dropped below 3 percent for the first time since the beginning of the housing crisis, to 2.91 percent.  It was 3.03 percent in March. .  The Non-credit enhanced delinquency rates dropped 9 basis points to 2.40 percent and the credit enhanced portion of the portfolio had a rate of 6.42 percent compared to 6.74 percent the previous month.  Multi-family delinquencies were 0.09 percent compared to 0.16 percent in March.