Loan Purchases by Freddie Hit Yearly Low in May

Freddie Mac acquired $25 billion of home mortgages in May, its weakest purchase month of the year, and yet another sign that originations in the primary market are slowing. In the same month a year ago the GSE bought $50 billion, or twice as much product. Its portfolio continued to run off. At May 30 it had $748 billion of product on its balance sheet, a 9% decline from the same period a year ago. There was some good news in Freddie's numbers: its single-family delinquency rate was unchanged at 4.06% and remains below the February high of 4.2%. However, multifamily delinquencies reached a new high: 0.32% compared to 0.25% in April. Freddie and its sister company, Fannie Mae, have been operating under a government conservatorship since September 2008. Fannie has yet to release its May activity report.