Fannie Purchases Near Record

Fannie Mae started the new year right by purchasing a near-record $163.9 billion of loans in January.The secondary giant bought $57.28 billion in mortgages for its portfolio and issued $106.65 billion in "lender-originated" mortgage-backed securities. (National Mortgage News adds these two figures together to arrive at Fannie's monthly purchases.) Fannie measures its purchases by a data point called "business volume." Fannie's business volume in January totaled $121 billion, a record. Its January portfolio purchases were the second-highest on record. Its retained commitments -- a barometer of future purchase activity -- fell to $25.1 billion in January, compared with $29.2 billion in December and $52.7 billion in November. In 2002 Fannie acquired $1.093 trillion in home mortgages, a 60% increase from 2001, and yet another record. Fannie Mae can be found online at http://www.fanniemae.com.