Fannie Mae purchased $73.8 billion worth of mortgages from its seller/servicers during January, its weakest acquisition month since August of last year when refinancings were booming, according to figures released Monday morning.
Loan acquisitions fell 16% month-to-month, but compared to January 2010 were up a handsome 35%.
Its total 'book of business' (portfolio plus off-balance sheet guarantees) was just about flat at $3.2 trillion. Its on-balance sheet holdings fell to $777 billion from $788 billion at Dec. 31. But a year ago it held $735 billion of product.
Fannie also is continuing to see improvement in its delinquencies. At January 31 it had a serious delinquency rate of 4.48%, the lowest reading in well over a year.
The government-controlled GSE reported a small operating profit in 4Q, but after paying a large dividend to the U.S. Treasury it actually lost $2.1 billion. (See related story.)
