Like its government-controlled cousin Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae reported two consecutive monthly increases in secondary acquisitions as monthly volume reached a 2010 high. But unlike Freddie, the secondary lender was able to grow its annual activity — to the highest level since 2003. Lates on home loans retreated, though apartment delinquency deteriorated.
The Washington, D.C.-based firm reported that it made $87.6 billion in new business acquisitions during December, rising for the second month in a row to the highest level of last year.
It was the same story at Freddie — which reported that it achieved its second monthly increase in purchases and issuances last month and reached its highest monthly volume of the year.
Fannie’s business came in at $77.7 billion a month earlier and $71.9 billion a year earlier.
But while Freddie reported that its annual volume fell by a quarter, 2010 volume at Fannie was better. Fannie’s 12-month business volume rose to $855.5 billion from the $823.6 billion in new business acquisitions reported for 2009.
The last time business was this good was 2003 — when a refinance tsunami helped catapult U.S. mortgage originations to an all-time high and Fannie bought $1.421 trillion.
The total book of business at Fannie climbed to $3.2240 trillion from the previous month’s $3.2153 trillion and from $3.2407 trillion at the end of 2009.
The book included a gross mortgage portfolio of $0.7888 trillion and $2.4353 trillion in outstanding mortgage-backed securities.
Residential delinquency of at least three months, which is reported on a one-month delay, was 4.50 percent at the end of November, improving from 4.52 percent on Oct. 31 and 5.29 percent on Nov. 30, 2009.
Multifamily 60-day delinquency was up 1 basis points to 0.72 percent and was also worse than 0.66 percent in November 2009.
