Fannie Purchases Hit Yearly High

Fannie Mae acquired $66.59 billion in mortgages during September, its best purchase month of the year.Loan acquisitions rose 36% from their August level, but compared with September 2005, purchases fell 6%. September tends to be a good month for secondary-market activity, reflecting loan applications filed in the summer that result in fall closings. Fannie's chief competitor, Freddie Mac, purchased $41.4 billion in mortgages in September, a 34% decline from the level of a year earlier. In August Freddie purchased $43.2 billion. At the end of September, Fannie had a retained portfolio of $726 billion and Freddie's totaled $702 billion. The government-sponsored enterprises can be found online at http://www.fanniemae.com and http://www.freddiemac.com.