Last month’s volume of new business at the housing finance agencies rolled back to levels not seen since at least 2005.
Fixed-rate mortgage-backed securities issued on behalf of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae amounted to $51.382 billion during March.
Securitizations slid from the prior month, when a revised $61.449 billion was issued, and plummeted from March 2013, when volume was a revised $145.158 billion.
According to statistics back to December 2005, which are the oldest available numbers from data provider eMBS, fixed-rate agency MBS issuance has not been this low in any other month during the period.
For the three months ended March 31, agency issuance totaled $177.515 billion.
At Washington, D.C.-based Fannie, fixed-rate issuance fell to $21.847 billion from $25.496 billion three months earlier and $63.509 billion a year earlier.
From Jan. 1 through March 31, issuance amounted to $73.022 billion at Fannie.
Fannie’s secondary rival, Freddie, generated $13.797 billion in fixed-rate issuances last month, dropping from $17.008 billion in February. Freddie’s March 2013 issuances were $48.887 billion.
During the first three months of 2014, the McLean, Va.-based company’s issuances were $49.659 billion.
At Washington, D.C.-based Ginnie, fixed-rate MBS issuance declined to $15.738 billion from $18.946 billion and were $32.762 billion in March 2013.
Year-to-date March 31 issuances at Ginnie came in at $54.835 billion.
