Freddie Out-Purchased Fannie in April

Freddie Mac, which has long been the "little brother" to "big sister" Fannie Mae, bought more loans than its crosstown competitor during April, the first time it has out-purchased Fannie in about a decade.During the month, Freddie acquired $48.5 billion in mortgages to Fannie's $45.2 billion. Historically, Fannie Mae's purchases are $10 billion to $25 billion greater than Freddie's each month, but in the wake of Fannie's $12 billion accounting scandal, Fannie has been losing market share and Freddie has been closing the gap. Seller/servicers say Freddie Mac is gearing up to aggressively purchase interest-only mortgages, a product that Fannie Mae, so far, has ignored. Even though Freddie out-purchased Fannie in April, so far this year Fannie has acquired $175.7 billion to Freddie's $159.9 billion, a difference of $15.8 billion. Freddie Mac can be found on the Web at http:///www.freddiemac.com, and Fannie Mae can be found at http://www.fanniemae.com.