Federal Home Loan Mortgage Q1 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

Skip to Participants
Jeff Markowitz
Jeff Markowitz
SVP & Chief External Affairs Officer at Freddie Mac

Good morning, and thank you for joining us for a presentation of Freddie Mac's First Quarter twenty twenty five Financial Results. I'm Jeff Markowitz, Senior Vice President and Chief External Affairs Officer. We're joined today by Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Jim Whitlinger. Before we begin today, we'd like to point out that during the call, Mr. Whitlinger may make forward looking statements based on assumptions about the company's key business drivers and other factors.

Jeff Markowitz
Jeff Markowitz
SVP & Chief External Affairs Officer at Freddie Mac

Changes in these factors could cause the company's actual results to materially vary from its expectations. A description of these factors can be found in the company's quarterly report on Form 10 Q filed today. You will find the 10 Q earnings press release and related materials posted on the Investor Relations of freddiemac.com. This call is recorded and a replay will soon be available on freddiemac.com. We ask that the call not be rebroadcast or transcribed.

Jeff Markowitz
Jeff Markowitz
SVP & Chief External Affairs Officer at Freddie Mac

With that, I'll turn the call over to our CFO, Jim Whitlinger.

Jim Whitlinger
Jim Whitlinger
EVP & CFO at Freddie Mac

Good morning, and thank you for joining our call to review Freddie Mac's first quarter performance. Let's start with the bottom line. Freddie Mac delivered a solid performance, earning 2,800,000,000 of net income in the first quarter, driving the company's net worth to $62,000,000,000 We helped 313,000 families across the nation buy, rent or refinance a home in the quarter, with 52% of our single family loan purchases supporting first time homebuyers and 92% of the eligible rental units financed affordable to middle income renters who form the backbone of our communities. Our commitment to our mission is unwavering and will only improve as we work with Director of US Federal Housing, Bill Pulte, to streamline our operations by stripping away unnecessary bureaucracy and eliminating nonessential activities. I'll talk a little more about that and what it means for Freddie Mac before I conclude today's call.

Jim Whitlinger
Jim Whitlinger
EVP & CFO at Freddie Mac

So let's get right to the financials. As I noted this morning, we reported first quarter twenty twenty five net income of $2,800,000,000 an increase of $28,000,000 or 1% year over year. This increase was primarily driven by higher net interest income from continued mortgage portfolio growth and lower funding costs, partially offset by lower yields on short term investments. Our first quarter net interest income was $5,100,000,000 up $343,000,000 or 7% year over year. The increase was primarily driven by continued mortgage portfolio growth in single family and an increase in the volume of fully guaranteed securitizations in multifamily.

Jim Whitlinger
Jim Whitlinger
EVP & CFO at Freddie Mac

Noninterest income for the first quarter was $750,000,000 a decline of $248,000,000 or 25% lower from the prior year quarter. This was primarily due to a decrease in net investment gains in multifamily. Noninterest expense declined $34,000,000 or 2% year over year, primarily due to lower credit enhancement expenses driven by lower volume of cumulative credit risk transfer transactions. Our provision for credit losses was $280,000,000 for this quarter, primarily driven by a credit reserve build in single family attributable to new acquisitions. Turning to our individual business segments, the single family segment reported net income of $2,300,000,000 for the quarter, up $316,000,000 or 16% year over year.

Jim Whitlinger
Jim Whitlinger
EVP & CFO at Freddie Mac

Single family net revenues of $4,900,000,000 increased 10% from the prior year quarter. This increase was primarily driven by a 6% increase in our net interest income, which benefited from continued mortgage portfolio growth. Our single family mortgage portfolio at the end of the quarter was $3,100,000,000,000 up 2% year over year. Our provision for single family credit losses was an expense of $228,000,000 this quarter, primarily due to credit reserve build for new acquisitions. The provision in the prior year quarter was $120,000,000 which was primarily attributable to new acquisitions and increasing mortgage interest rates.

Jim Whitlinger
Jim Whitlinger
EVP & CFO at Freddie Mac

Our current house price forecast assumes an increase of 4.2% over the next twelve months and 2.8% over the subsequent twelve months. This is a change from our prior forecast at the end of last quarter, which assumed 2.73.3% growth over the next twelve and subsequent twelve months, respectively. The single family allowance for credit losses coverage ratio at the end of this quarter was 21 basis points, unchanged from last quarter and up one basis point year over year. New business activity totaled $78,000,000,000 this quarter, up from $62,000,000,000 in the first quarter of twenty twenty four. Both home purchase and refinance activity increased due to higher market coverage and conforming loan limits as well as house price appreciation in recent quarters.

Jim Whitlinger
Jim Whitlinger
EVP & CFO at Freddie Mac

Refinance activity accounted for 21% of our total new business activity this quarter, up from 15% in the same quarter last year as we saw mortgage rates come down throughout the quarter. The thirty year mortgage rate at the end of the quarter was 6.65%, down from 6.85% at the end of the fourth quarter of twenty twenty four and from 6.79% at the end of the first quarter of twenty twenty four. First time homebuyers represented 52% of our total new business activity or 81,000 households in the first quarter. The average estimated guarantee fee charged on new business was 54 basis points, while the weighted average original loan to value on new purchases was 77% and the weighted average original credit score was 750 Credit characteristics of our single family mortgage portfolio remained strong as well, with the weighted average current loan to value ratio at 52% and the weighted average current credit score at 754. At the end of the quarter, 62% of our single family mortgage portfolio had some form of credit enhancement.

Jim Whitlinger
Jim Whitlinger
EVP & CFO at Freddie Mac

The single family serious delinquency rate remained low at 59 basis points, unchanged from the prior quarter and up seven basis points from the prior year quarter. The year over year increase was primarily due to a higher serious delinquency rate for loans originated drawing and after 2022 as well as lingering impacts from hurricanes that occurred late in 2024. On a related note, in the first quarter, we helped approximately 25,000 families remain in their homes through loan workouts. Moving on to multifamily, the segment reported net income of $533,000,000 which is down $288,000,000 or 35% from the prior year quarter. This decrease was primarily driven by lower non interest income of $585,000,000 which decreased $427,000,000 from the prior year quarter.

Jim Whitlinger
Jim Whitlinger
EVP & CFO at Freddie Mac

It also was driven by lower revenues from held for sale loan purchases and securitization activities, impacts from interest rate management activities and less favorable fair value changes from prepayment rates. Net interest income of $349,000,000 was up 29% year over year, primarily driven by an increase in the volume of fully guaranteed securitizations. The multifamily provision for credit losses was an expense of $52,000,000 this quarter versus $61,000,000 in the prior year quarter. Our multifamily new business activity was $10,000,000,000 for the first quarter, up $1,000,000,000 from a year ago. Our multifamily business provided financing for 89,000 multifamily rental units in the quarter with 66% of eligible rental units affordable to low income families.

Jim Whitlinger
Jim Whitlinger
EVP & CFO at Freddie Mac

Also in the first quarter, we securitized $16,000,000,000 of multifamily loans, dollars 5,000,000,000 more than in the prior year quarter. Fully guaranteed securitizations represented 56% of total securitizations, up from 36% in the first quarter twenty twenty four. The average guarantee fee on our total guarantee portfolio increased five basis points year over year to 52 basis points. Our multifamily mortgage portfolio increased five percent year over year to $467,000,000,000 The multifamily delinquency rate at the end of the quarter was 46 basis points. This was up 12 basis points from 34 basis points at the March 2024 and up six basis points from the fourth quarter of twenty twenty four.

Jim Whitlinger
Jim Whitlinger
EVP & CFO at Freddie Mac

The year over year increase in the delinquency rate was primarily driven by increased delinquencies in our floating rate loans, including small balance loans that are in their floating rate period. 98% of these delinquent loans had credit enhancement coverage at the end of the quarter. At the multifamily mortgage portfolio level, our credit enhancement coverage was 93%. On the capital front, our net worth increased to $62,400,000,000 at the end of the quarter, representing a 24% increase year over year. Let me conclude by noting that many of you are closely following the announcements and orders issued by Director Pulte and what those mean for Freddie Mac.

Jim Whitlinger
Jim Whitlinger
EVP & CFO at Freddie Mac

Briefly, Director Pulte has helped us streamline our business and harness the productivity of thousands of Freddie Mac employees now in the office full time. He has eliminated activities not central to Freddie Mac's mission as well as requirements that make it more expensive to finance a loan, but which might provide little tangible benefit to the majority of American renters and homebuyers. We support actions he has taken to drive fraud and waste out of The U. S. Housing finance system.

Jim Whitlinger
Jim Whitlinger
EVP & CFO at Freddie Mac

We expect the savings associated with FHFA's new direction to reduce Freddie Mac's general and administrative expenses in 2025 and beyond. Furthermore, we believe that regulatory changes making it easier for us to responsibly acquire loans will increase our revenue and enable us to provide even greater liquidity to the single family and multifamily market. That should enable Freddie Mac to invest more in critical technology, increase our net worth and lower the cost of originating a mortgage. Taking a step back, the director has challenged us to create a more affordable US housing system. We are committed to rising to that challenge.

Jim Whitlinger
Jim Whitlinger
EVP & CFO at Freddie Mac

Thank you for joining us today.

Analysts
    • Jeff Markowitz
      SVP & Chief External Affairs Officer at Freddie Mac
    • Jim Whitlinger
      EVP & CFO at Freddie Mac
Earnings Conference Call
Federal Home Loan Mortgage Q1 2025
00:00 / 00:00

Transcript Sections