Freddie Purchases Dive in November

Meanwhile, Freddie Mac's loan purchases totaled $44.5 billion in November, down 42% from the October total and 50% from September's.Purchase commitments rebounded from $3.7 billion in October to $7.6 billion in November, but this barometer of future activity is way off the $18.4 billion in commitments made in September. The slowdown in mortgage financing and secondary-market activity has also slowed portfolio growth at the giant mortgage company. "Given current market conditions, the company expects retained portfolio growth for the fourth quarter to be relatively flat," Freddie said. Freddie also issued a correction in its monthly volume summary stating that it had previously misclassified $303 million in securities backed by Ginnie Mae collateral as Freddie Mac securities rather than as non-Freddie Mac mortgage-related securities. The impact of the correction on "related annualized growth rates and liquidation rates were no more than 0.1 percentage point and 0.3 percentage points," Freddie Mac reported.