WASHINGTON Home purchase lending hit a post-2007 high in the second quarter as low interest rates and growing consumer confidence continue to support the housing market.

"You are seeing the employment picture brighten," said Bob Walters, the chief economist for Quicken Loans.

He said consumers are more secure in their jobs and feel more comfortable because home prices are again on the rise.

"You go back a few years, people were still afraid home prices could fall again," he said. "So there is a psychological component that is making this home buying season more robust than in the past. Since the crash, this year is the most robust activity that we have seen."

A Wells Fargo Securities report said sales of existing homes rose 1.1% in June to a 5.57 million-unit rate, the strongest pace since February 2007. Sales of new homes rose 10.1% in the first six months of the year compared with the first half of 2015, the report said.

"June was a breakout month for home sales, with both new and existing home sales reaching fresh post-recession highs," it said.

Black Knight reported that lenders originated 1.1 million single-family purchase loans in the second quarter, up from 720,000 in the prior quarter.

"It was a particularly strong for purchase originations," said Ben Graboske, executive vice president at Black Knight Financial Services in Jacksonville, Fla.

Purchase mortgages totaled $297 billion in the second quarter, up from $195 billion in the first quarter.

"At $297 billion, second quarter purchase originations marked the highest level in terms of both volume and dollar amount seen since 2007," Graboske said in a press release.

He predicted that third quarter demand could see another boost due to the June 23 vote by British voters to exit from the European Union, which helped drive interest rates lower.

"We are expecting a pretty strong showing from the Brexit in the refi and probably the purchase numbers as well," Graboske said in interview this week.

The Black Knight data is based on purchase loans originated and closed in the second quarter as reported by mortgage servicers.

Loan data from the Federal Housing Administration, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac shows the agencies endorsed or purchased 681,000 single-family loans in the second quarter. That was a 13.5% increase from a year earlier but a far cry from others' purchase estimates of over 1 million.

Yet it can take up to two months for lenders to transfer or sell newly originated loans to Fannie and Freddie, resulting in a lag in the reporting data.

When the agencies report their third quarter numbers, they might be picking up a lot of loans originated in the second quarter, Graboske said. "That is just the way the system works," he added.

The Mortgage Bankers Association projects approximately $275 billion in purchase loan originations for the second quarter, according to Joel Kan, MBA's associate vice president for industry surveys and forecasting. That is up from $243 billion in the second quarter of 2015.

MBA's weekly applications survey shows an average purchase loan amount of $304,000 for the same time frame. "It's not an apples to apples calculation, but that would indicate a loan count of about 916, 000," Kan said in a written response to a question on Wednesday.

Economists at CoreLogic are projecting that originations in 2016 will total $1.8 trillion, which would be the highest volume in five years.

It looks like "origination volumes are going to be quite strong in the third quarter," said CoreLogic chief economist Frank Nothaft. "We are expecting an increase in purchase money mortgages and also a pickup in refis."

http://www.nationalmortgagenews.com/news/origination/mortgage-origination-demand-hit-pre-crisis-high-in-2q-1086522-1.html

MCLEAN, VA--(Marketwired - Sep 8, 2016) - Freddie Mac (OTCQB: FMCC) recently priced a new offering of Structured Pass-Through Certificates (K Certificates) backed by floating-rate multifamily mortgages with 7-year terms. The approximately $1.1 billion in K Certificates (K-F20 Certificates) are expected to settle on or about September 22, 2016.

K-F20 Pricing

Class Principal/Notional Amount (mm) Weighted Average Life (Years) Discounted Margin Coupon Yield Dollar Price A $1,090.309 6.54 43 1 mo LIBOR + 43 0.9318% 100.00 XI $1,221.455 6.54 Non-Offered XP $1,221.455 N/A Non-Offered

Details

Co-Lead Managers and Joint Bookrunners: Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC and Goldman, Sachs and Co. Co-Managers: Amherst Pierpont Securities LLC, Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith, Incorporated, Stern Brothers & Co., and Wells Fargo Securities, LLC

Related Links

The K-F20 Certificates will not be rated, and will include one senior principal and interest class, one interest-only class, and one class entitled to static prepayment premiums. The K-F20 Certificates are backed by corresponding classes issued by the FREMF 2016-KF20 Mortgage Trust (K-F20 Trust) and guaranteed by Freddie Mac.The K-F20 Trust will also issue certificates consisting of the Class B, C and R Certificates, which will be subordinate to the classes backing the K-F20 Certificates.The K-F20 Trust Class B, C and R Certificates will not be guaranteed by Freddie Mac.

Freddie Mac Multifamily is a leading issuer of agency-guaranteed structured multifamily securities. K-Deals are part of the company's business strategy to transfer a portion of the risk of losses away from taxpayers and to private investors who purchase the unguaranteed subordinate bonds. K Certificates typically feature a wide range of investor options with stable cash flows and structured credit enhancement.

This announcement is not an offer to sell any securities of Freddie Mac or any other issuer. Offers for any given security are made only through applicable offering circulars and related supplements, which incorporate Freddie Mac's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2015, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on February 18, 2016; all other reports Freddie Mac filed with the SEC pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (Exchange Act) since December 31, 2015, excluding any information "furnished" to the SEC on Form 8-K; and all documents that Freddie Mac files with the SEC pursuant to Sections 13(a), 13(c) or 14 of the Exchange Act, excluding any information furnished to the SEC on Form 8-K.

Freddie Mac's press releases sometimes contain forward-looking statements. A description of factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the expectations expressed in these and other forward-looking statements can be found in the company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2015, and its reports on Form 10-Q and Form 8-K, filed with the SEC and available on the Investor Relations page of the company's Web site at www.FreddieMac.com/investors and the SEC's Web site at www.sec.gov.

Freddie Mac was established by Congress in 1970 to provide liquidity, stability and affordability to the nation's residential mortgage markets. Freddie Mac supports communities across the nation by providing mortgage capital to lenders. Today Freddie Mac is making home possible for one in four home borrowers and is the largest source of financing for multifamily housing. Additional information is available at FreddieMac.com, Twitter @FreddieMac and Freddie Mac's blog FreddieMac.com/blog.

http://freddiemac.mwnewsroom.com/press-releases/freddie-mac-prices-1-1-billion-multifamily-k-deal-otcqb-fmcc-1276285?feed=429e0be3-9aef-4a3a-9775-43f8e470d510