Now, let’s look at Freddie Mac’s overall results. In the second quarter, we helped 372,000 families buy, refinance or rent a home. This was more than a 40 percent increase over the first quarter. This includes 102,000 first-time homebuyers, representing more than 51 perce...
New business activity totaled $85 billion this quarter, up $23 billion from 1Q 2024. First-time homebuyers represented 53 percent of our new single-family home purchase loans. Higher mortgage rates continue to impact both purchase and refinance activity. Refinance activity accounted for...
The average fee on both 30- and 15-year fixed-rate mortgages was 0.5 point, according to Freddie Mac. The average rate for five-year adjustable-rate mortgages fell to 3.52% from 3.60% last week, the company said. The fee was 0.4 point. The Associated Press contributed to this report. ...
I may have this wrong, since I’m relying on memory, but as I remember it, until relatively recently (late ’70s, early ’80s) prepayment penalties were common on fixed rate mortgages. They didn’t apply in the case of a bona fide sale, but they prevented opportunistic refinance. They ...