Monthly issuance of mortgage-backed securities guaranteed by the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp., the Government National Mortgage Association and the Federal National Mortgage Association declined to the lowest level since last year.
Agency issuance of fixed-rate MBS amounted to $126.658 billion during August.
Activity dropped from a revised $139.545 billion the prior month and a revised $148.203 billion during the same month in 2012.
Based on historical data provided by eMBS, the last time the three government-controlled entities generated less fixed-rate MBS securitizations was in December 2012, when issuance amounted to a revised $123.675 billion.
Year-to-date agency issuance totaled $1.1549 trillion as of Aug. 31.
Business at Fannie Mae fell to $61.943 billion from $69.141 billion in July. Activity was also slower than in August 2012, when the Washington, D.C.-based firm had $75.365 billion in issuances.
Fannie’s issuance was $552.133 billion during the first eight months of 2013.
At Freddie Mac, August MBS issuance of $32.835 billion was down from $35.671 billion the prior month and $37.254 billion one year prior.
The secondary lender’s volume from Jan. 1 through Aug. 31 totaled $323.306 billion.
With $31.880 billion in August issuances, Ginnie Mae’s business slowed from $34.733 billion in July. It was also down from $35.584 billion in August 2012.
Issuance at government-owned Ginnie was $279.434 billion so far this year.
