Fair value gains were the primary driver as Fannie Mae's net income more than doubled from the first quarter to the second quarter, according to an announcement from Fannie May on Thursday. The GSE's net income for Q2 was $4.6 billion, compared to $1.9 billion in the first quarter, totaling $6.5 billion for the year. Despite the substantial quarter-over-quarter increase in net income, Fannie Mae is still slightly behind last year's pace when the GSE reported a net income of $14.2 billion for all of 2014.
Fannie Mae also announced it will pay a dividend of $4.4 billion to the Department of Treasury in September 2015, bringing the total dividend payment to Treasury of $142.5 billion – about $26.4 billion more than Fannie Mae received in the 2008 bailout from Treasury. The Enterprise provided about $144 billion in liquidity to the mortgage market in Q2, which enabled families to buy, refinance, or rent homes.
Distressed home sales comprised 9 .9 percent of all U.S. home sales in May, according to data released by CoreLogic on Thursday. It was the first time since the recession that the distressed sales share has dipped below 10 percent. The national distressed sales share declined by 2.8 percentage points in May 2015 from May 2014's share of 12.7 percent. May 2015's share was the lowest total for any May since 2007, when it was reported at 5 percent.