Fannie's MBS Issuance Drops to $44B, Delinquencies Rise

Fannie Mae issued $44 billion in mortgage-backed securities in February, down 7.6% from the previous month. The government sponsored enterprise also reported that its holdings of Fannie guaranteed MBS fell 4.3% to $318.8 billion in February. The monthly activity report shows that Fannie's serious delinquency continued to rise. The percentage of Fannie single-family loans 90-days or more past due hit 5.52 in January, up 14 basis points from December. Fannie's serious delinquency rate has doubled since January 2008 when it was 2.77%. Unlike Freddie Mac, Fannie does not report on its purchases of refinanced loans in its monthly summary. However, the GSE regulator reported recently that Fannie purchased 141,200 refinanced loans in January, down from 170,600 in December. Over 15,000 of those loans were refinanced through the Home Affordable Refinancing Program, which involves mortgages with loan-to-value ratios above 80%. Federal Housing Finance Agency data show that Fannie completed HARP refinancings on 626 loans with LTVs between 105% and 125%, compared to 521 in December.