$45.3 billion April business purchases
By MortgageDaily.com staff
5/27/2005

Fannie Mae's purchases increased for the third consecutive month, but its mortgage portfolio commitments signal a downturn is on the horizon.

April business volume amounted to $45.3 billion at the secondary lender, improving 7% from the previous month, according to its latest monthly summary. But the total is way off the $73.8 billion reported a year earlier.

Outstanding mortgage backed securities of $1.4 trillion and a decreasing mortgage portfolio of nearly $0.9 trillion pushed down the secondary giant's book of business below $2.3 trillion for the first time since October, the report said.

The Washington, D.C.-based company reported retained commitments of $5.7 billion in April -- almost half the amount in March.

Single family delinquency -- reported by Fannie on a one-month lag -- dropped five basis points to 0.59% in March.

April's effective duration gap -- a measure of its interest rate exposure -- was reportedly -1 months, compared to +1 in March.

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