Fannie Mae’s Book of Business Sees Falling Totals

Following the news that Freddie Mac's total mortgage portfolio shrank, Fannie Mae revealed Thursday that its own gross mortgage portfolio also contracted in April at a compound annualized rate of 13.8 percent.

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According to the GSE's monthly summary, its gross mortgage balance fell with a decrease in sales and purchases. The 13.8 percent shrinkage rate was greater than March's 7.3 percent and the highest since January, when it was 14.3 percent. The negative growth rate year-to-date in April was 10.3 percent.

The gross mortgage end balance in April was $683 billion, a $63.6 billion drop from April 2011. The balance has fallen steadily every month for the year in between, with the decrease between March and April 2012 being the largest since the drop between April and May last year.

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The end balance of mortgage-backed securities (MBS) in portfolio slid down to $204 billion, owing largely to decreases in sales and purchases. Securitizations were $13.5 billion, down from March but comparable to April 2011. Further declines in mortgage loans and both agency and non-agency mortgage securities contributed to the overall decline of the gross mortgage portfolio.

Fannie Mae's MBS and other guarantees also fell to $2.66 trillion, the first decrease since November 2011. The negative compounded growth rate in April was 8.2 percent, compared to March's positive growth of 11.7 percent. The loss comes from a large decrease in MBS issuances and a moderate decrease in liquidations. Guaranteed securities and mortgage loans were valued at $3.1 trillion, more than $20 billion down from March.

These falling values led to shrinkage in Fannie Mae's Book of Business, with an annualized rate decrease of 8 percent for April. This was a marked fall from March's positive 9.3 percent growth and brings the year-to-date rate growth to negative 0.3 percent.

Single-family serious delinquency rates totaled 3.63 percent in April, continuing the trend of falling delinquency rates. The same was true for multifamily rates, which fell to 0.35 percent.

Fannie Mae completed 12,552 loan modifications in April, bringing the year's total so far to 59,223.