Freddie's Loan Purchases Stay Weak

Freddie Mac purchased or guaranteed $27.2 billion of mortgages in September, a slight gain from the multi-year low of $25.8 billion established the month before. The GSE was placed in a conservatorship on September 7. Its regulator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, has directed the secondary market giant to increase purchases of its own mortgage-backed securities. However, Freddie reported that its holdings of its own MBS declined by $22.6 billion to $375 billion in September. Its investment portfolio declined by $24 billion to $738.9 billion. Freddie issued $22 billion in guaranteed MBS in September, nearly matching its issuance in the previous month. The mortgage company has added a new data table ("Other Investments") to its monthly summary report. The September issue shows that Freddie purchased $10.4 billion of private-label "non-mortgage" asset backed securities.