Freddie Mac purchased $37.6 billion of residential loans from its seller/servicers in February, a 10% increase from the prior month, and a sign perhaps that Bank of America's recent decision to quit Fannie Mae is helping Freddie.
Compared to the same month in 2011, purchases were down slightly.
Both BofA and Freddie, as a policy, do not discuss their secondary market relationships. Fannie has not yet released its February results.
In late January BofA decided to stop selling most of its conventional production to Fannie because of ongoing repurchase disputes between the two. Instead, it would sell more production to Freddie. (Fannie later disclosed that it was ready to cut off BofA anyway — unless the bank ponied up more money for buyback-related claims. BofA was one of Fannie's biggest clients.)
During the first two months of 2012 Freddie acquired $72 billion of product compared to $78 billion for the same two months in 2011. Housing economists believe lenders will fund roughly $1.1 trillion in loans this year compared to $1.4 trillion last year.
Meanwhile, Freddie also reported that its delinquencies fell to 3.57% in February from 3.59% the month prior. But the new reading is not its best over the past 12 months. That came in August when delinquencies fell to 3.49%.
