Freddie Mac’s multifamily business volume — including both loan purchases and bond guarantees — reached a record of $28.8 billion, or a 42% increase, compared to $20.3 billion in 2011.
This volume includes the government-sponsored enterprise’s targeted affordable housing products.
The previous multifamily business activity record was $24 billion in 2008.
“It was a phenomenal year for us and the sellers and servicers in our network. We achieved record volume while maintaining strong credit discipline and providing essential liquidity to the growing multifamily mortgage market,” said Senior Vice President David Brickman of Freddie Mac Multifamily.
He added, “In the fourth quarter we completed about 33% of our yearly volume — approximately $10 billion in multifamily mortgages.”
The GSE Capital Market Executive (CME) program settled $25 billion, or 88% of the total new purchase volume in 2012.
Freddie Mac also securitized $21.2 billion in CME mortgages underlying 17 new K Certificate transactions, guaranteeing series a certifications. This totaled $17.9 billion for the year.
“Our K-Deal issuance increased 55 percent this year,” Brickman said. “We are now in the securitization market every day with new issuances every two to three weeks.”
About 54% of the total 2012 loan purchases or credit enhancements were refinances while about 40% were acquisitions.
As of Dec. 31, 2012, the GSE had the lowest delinquency rate in two years of 19 basis points.
Freddie Mac also settled roughly $3 billion in targeted affordable housing products of which $2.4 billion were multifamily bond credit enhancements.
Additionally, the GSE purchased about $650 million in senior housing mortgages as well as purchases of more than $1.7 billion in student housing mortgages.
“Multifamily is a profitable business line for Freddie Mac, and has produced nearly $4 billion in segment earnings since 2010. This includes $1.65 billion in the first nine months of 2012,” Brickman said.
Since the launch of Freddie Mac’s multifamily business in 1993, it has provided more than $290 billion in financing for about 60,000 multifamily properties.
