Fannie Mae acquired $58.4 billion of mortgages from its seller/servicers in October, its best purchase month since January and a sign that low rates are starting to spur new activity in the primary market.
Year to date, the GSE has purchased $503 billion of loans, and could finish 2011 with $600 billion of acquisitions, which would represent a 30% decline from last year.
Then again, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac-backed mortgages are no longer the loan of choice for consumers buying homes. Both have acquisitions that lean heavily toward refinancings.
In September Fannie bought $55 billion of product. In January it acquired almost $74 billion.
At the end of October Fannie held $721 billion of mortgage-related assets, a 10% decline from a year ago.
At the end of October it had a serious delinquency rate of 4% on its single-family book of business, flat from September, but down from 4.52% in October 2010.
Its multifamily delinquency rate was 0.58% on October 31, down a tick from September. A year ago the MF late payment rate was 0.71%.
