Buybacks of mortgages delivered to the GSEs declined in the fourth quarter. Still, repurchase activity was elevated for the year and the amount of unresolved repurchases didn’t budge much in the fourth quarter. (Includes three data charts.)

Seller repurchases from Fannie/Freddie MBS continued to climb in the third quarter, although the pipeline of unresolved claims declined a bit. A third-party study shows the critical-defect rate was down slightly in early 2022 as lenders grapple with a challenging market. (Includes three data charts.)

Seller buybacks were up 20.3% from the first to the second quarter, with most of them involving loans sold to the GSEs in 2021. Rocket Mortgage and loanDepot led the industry in repurchases during the first half of 2022. (Includes three data charts.)

Fannie and Freddie reported $1.01 billion in seller repurchases during the first quarter of 2022, the highest quarterly volume in nearly eight years. (Includes three data charts.)

Fannie and Freddie reported nearly $3 billion in repurchases of defective loans during 2021, the highest annual total since 2014. Most buyback demands stemmed from record MBS issuance by the two GSEs over the past two years.

Some delinquent loans have been removed from MBS trusts before completing their modification trial periods.

In the first nine months of 2021, GSE sellers have repurchased $2.1 billion of defective loans from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, more than in any year since 2014. Soaring new MBS issuance is the reason.

The landslide of new single-family MBS issuance since the pandemic started is yielding a predictable side effect: rising buyback demands from the GSEs. (Includes two data charts.)

After spiking in the third and fourth quarters of 2020, GSE repurchases of delinquent loans from MBS pools fell sharply in early 2021. (Includes data chart.)

Fannie released a table listing 1,221 pools that were impacted by a servicer reporting error.