Freddie Mac reported healthy first-quarter earnings on Thursday, reversing underwhelming performance to close out 2025.
A surge in first-quarter refinance activity boosted revenues for the government-sponsored enterprise, sending the company’s net income soaring 27% from year-ago levels to $3.6 billion.
Freddie reported net worth of $74 billion for the quarter, an 18% increase year over year. The company’s total mortgage portfolio grew to $3.2 trillion, up 1% from the first quarter of 2025.
Net revenues that were 5% higher over the year at $6.1 billion reflected 10% annual growth in net interest income combined with 137% quarterly growth in noninterest income, comprising various loan-level and credit guarantee fees. Noninterest income was 31% lower on a yearly basis, however.
“These results demonstrate the earnings power of Freddie Mac,” said Jim Whitlinger, Freddie Mac’s chief financial officer, during an investor call Thursday morning.
Whitlinger also briefly acknowledged a recent announcement that VantageScore4.0 would officially begin to be accepted in agency underwriting guidelines. Experian, Equifax and TransUnion, the three largest credit bureaus in the U.S., jointly launched VantageScore in 2006 as a competing credit score model to the Classic FICO industry standard from Fair Isaac Corp.
“The addition of a credit scoring alternative for qualified mortgages is intended to promote robust competition, which can benefit consumers, lenders and the broader housing market,” said Whitlinger. “This is one more way we’re responsibly driving efficiencies across the housing finance system.”
New single-family housing business activity rose 32% over the year to $103 billion, Freddie Mac’s earnings statement showed, fueled entirely by a 169% annual increase in refinance activity.
Mortgage rates were artificially pushed lower following the announcement by President Donald Trump in early January that he had directed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to purchase up to $200 billion in mortgage bonds. The move narrowed secondary spreads and contributed to rates falling into the high-5% range by the middle of February.
Average mortgage rates on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages have hovered around 6.35% in recent weeks, driven higher over the past two months by Iran war volatility and inflationary pressures.
But as experts cautioned to Scotsman Guide, the federal government’s effort to nudge mortgage borrowing costs lower did more to squeeze through refinance production than stimulate purchase demand amid a broad and persistent affordability crunch.
Overall new purchase activity declined for Freddie Mac by 22% on a quarterly basis and 3% on a yearly basis in the first quarter. New multifamily business activity rose to $13 billion in the first quarter from $10 billion a year ago.
