| Freddie Business Falls
January business purchases $55.1 billion February 26, 2003 By MortgageDaily.com staff |
| Freddie Mac’s new business purchase volume for January took an almost 40% dive from December.
New business purchases totaled $55.1 billion, compared with $91.2 billion in December. Freddie still managed to purchase almost 6% more in loans than the same time last year, however. Retained purchases totaled $24.9 billion in January, an almost 30% drop from December. The total from January 2002 was $29.5 billion. Freddie’s total participation certificates (PCs) reached $1.079 trillion in January, down a bit from December’s $1.082 trillion. Total net PCs, which excludes the PCs held in the retained portfolio, totaled $740.1 billion, compared with $742.9 billion in December and $650.2 billion last year. A message left with a Freddie spokeswoman seeking comment about the declines was not returned. Freddie announced its duration gap in January has remained an even zero, the same as December. Freddie announced in January that it would restate its earnings upward for 2002, 2001, and possibly 2000 because some parts of its accounting were not consistent with generally accepted accounting principles, or GAAP. The new financials will come out when Freddie’s new auditor, PricewaterhouseCoopers, finishes its first full-year audit and re-audit. Pricewaterhouse replaced Arthur Anderson as Freddie’s auditor in March. Freddie is based in McLean, Va., and is a government-sponsored housing enterprise. |
