A rise in mortgage forbearance plans drove an overall monthly uptick in foreclosure prevention actions taken by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in November, shown by recently released figures from the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA).

The government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) issued 3,855 forbearance plans in November, well more than double the trended monthly average of 1,764 going back to June and about 33% more than year-ago levels. Forbearance starts had seen a notable uptick in October.

For context, the roughly 49,737 loans in forbearance on Fannie’s and Freddie’s books at the end of November was almost 16% higher over the month but only represents approximately 0.16% of the GSEs’ combined single-family conventional book of business. Slightly more than 1% of those loans have been in forbearance for more than 12 months.

After rising more than 10% from September to October, however, the number of borrowers who received payment deferrals in November after having completed a forbearance plan declined by more than 11%, dropping to 5,493 and below September levels.

The GSEs’ overall delinquency rate remained stable in November despite increasing to 2.01% of their total servicing books, up from 1.71% in October and 1.89% a year ago. Their combined serious delinquency rate was 0.57%, up from 0.55% the month prior.

Foreclosure starts recovered after climbing to a yearly high of 9,255 in October, declining 21% to 7,307 in November.

Overall, Fannie and Freddie took a combined 17,142 home retention actions in November, compared to 17,032 and 15,470 during the two preceding months.

The portion of such home retention actions that were permanent loan modifications fell notably from October, from 7,210 to 6,309, a roughly 12.5% drop. Principal forbearance accounted for 63% of all loan modifications, down from 64% the previous month.

November’s Foreclosure Prevention and Refinance Report from the FHFA also underscored a drop in overall refinance activity across the GSEs’ loan portfolios. Despite average rates for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages remaining flat from October at around 6.25%, the total number of refinances slipped from 71,287 to 69,451, a decrease of about 2.6%.

Cash-out refinances comprised about 36.5% of that refinance activity, down from a 38% share in October and a 55% share in September.