Freddie Sold Off $32B in Assets Before Takeover

Freddie Mac sold off $32.5 billion in mortgage assets in August before it was placed into conservatorship by regulators and reduced the size of its mortgage portfolio, according to a monthly summary of its business activity. Overall, the secondary-market agency, which is supposed to provide liquidity to the mortgage market, reduced its portfolio by $37.3 billion in August to $760.9 billion. Freddie also reported that it guaranteed $22.0 billion in mortgage-backed securities in August, down from $35.4 billion a year earlier. Ginnie Mae guaranteed the issuance of $28.8 billion in MBS in August. The summary also shows that the serious delinquency rate on Freddie's single-family mortgages rose 10 basis points in August to 1.11%. The percentage of Freddie loans that were 90 days or more past due stood at 0.46% in August 2007.