Fannie Hikes Production Forecast by 28%

Fannie Mae hiked its 2004 production forecast by 28% on Thursday to $2.43 trillion, noting that it has "substantially" raised its projection on refinancings.Previously, Fannie had projected $1.9 trillion in mortgage fundings for the year. The mortgage giant's about-face comes almost a week after a horrible jobs report caused the yield on the 10-year Treasury to plunge. At deadline time, the 10-year (which mortgages are priced off) was yielding 3.7%. In 2003 mortgage funders originated a record $3.9 trillion in loans, with refis accounting for 71.3% of the total, according to figures compiled by National Mortgage News and the Quarterly Data Report. Fannie Mae projects that refis will account for 48% of all mortgages funded this year. In its revised forecast, it expects home sales to set a fourth consecutive record and mortgage debt outstanding to grow by almost 10% this year. Fannie Mae can be found on the Web at http://www.fanniemae.com.