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Fannie Mae’s Mortgage Portfolio Kicks Off 2016 With Rare Expansion

fanniemaeThe first monthly volume summary of 2016, Fannie Mae's gross mortgage portfolio experienced a rare month of expansion, increasing at a compound annualized rate of 5 percent for January.

The increase amounted to about $1.4 billion, raising the amount of unpaid principal balance (UPB) of loans in the portfolio up to approximately $346.5 billion. January's increase ended nine consecutive months of contraction for the portfolio and followed a full year in which the portfolio contracted at a rate of 16.5 percent.

January marked only the fourth month out of the last 66 since June 2010 for Fannie Mae’s gross mortgage portfolio (March 2015, January 2015, and December 2012 were the other three months). At the beginning of that stretch in June 2010, the amount of UPB of the loans in the portfolio was $818 billion. Despite having contracted in only four months in the last five and a half years, it has expanded for two consecutive Januarys.

With January's expansion, the value of UPB of the loans in the portfolio remained slightly higher than the 2016 cap, which is $339.4 billion.

Fannie Mae's total book of business, which includes the gross mortgage portfolio plus total Fannie Mae mortgage-backed securities and other guarantees minus Fannie Mae MBS in the portfolio, declined at a compound annualized rate of 0.9 percent in January down to a value of about $3.097 trillion. The book of business contracted in eight of 12 months in 2015 at a rate of 0.8 percent for the year, according to Fannie Mae.

The serious delinquency rate on single-family loans backed by Fannie Mae held steady from December to January at 1.55 percent, which is consistent with the level reported in September 2008, the month during which Fannie Mae was taken into conservatorship by the FHFA.

The number of loan modifications completed by Fannie Mae was nearly unchanged from December to January at 6,451 (compared to 6,599). The monthly average of loan modifications completed by Fannie Mae has been on the steady decline; for 2014, the monthly average was 10,235. For 2015, the monthly average declined to 7,851.

Click here to view Fannie Mae’s entire January 2016 Monthly Volume Summary.

About Author: Brian Honea

Brian Honea's writing and editing career spans nearly two decades across many forms of media. He served as sports editor for two suburban newspaper chains in the DFW area and has freelanced for such publications as the Yahoo! Contributor Network, Dallas Home Improvement magazine, and the Dallas Morning News. He has written four non-fiction sports books, the latest of which, The Life of Coach Chuck Curtis, was published by the TCU Press in December 2014. A lifelong Texan, Brian received his master's degree from Amberton University in Garland.
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