The issuance of mortgage-backed securities on behalf of the Federal National Mortgage Association, the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. and the Government National Mortgage Association was higher during 2012 than either of the prior two years. Fannie Mae is on track to see its strongest year in nearly a decade. During just December, however, overall business slowed — with Freddie Mac leading the decline.
Issuance of fixed-rate mortgage-backed securities by the three housing finance agencies totaled $123.784 billion during the final month of last year.
Volume sank compared to $195.754 billion in November, when issuance had surged by nearly half from October. In December 2011, total fixed-rate issuance amounted to $112.716 billion.
Using historical data from eMBS, which provided the issuance statistics, full-year 2012 agency issuance of fixed-rate MBS totaled $1.6014 trillion.
Last year was an improvement from 2011, when issuance was $1.0562 trillion, and 2010, when the total was $1.2645 trillion.
The last time annual activity was this strong was in 2009, when fixed-rate issuance reached $1.6550 trillion.
Freddie Mac saw the steepest decline from November, with December issuance plummeting to $25.897 billion from $55.049. Freddie’s business has accelerated, however, from the same month a year earlier, when volume was just $19.345 billion.
For all of 2012, the McLean, Va.-based company’s fixed-rate issuance totaled $421.304 billion, more than the $273.4 billion in 2011 and the best year since 2009, when Freddie’s issuances totaled $459 billion.
Fannie also saw its activity tumble last month, to $61.523 from November fixed-rate issuances of $102.861 billion. Activity was even slower than in December 2011, when volume was $69.489 billion.
Fixed-rate issuance at the Washington, D.C.-based company jumped to $801.331 billion for the entire year from $518.70 billion during 2011. It was the best year since 2009, when Fannie’s fixed-rate issuances were $765 billion.
Fannie, itself, has reported $0.847 trillion in total business acquisitions for the first 11 months of 2012. Using the 40 percent decline between November and December for fixed-rate MBSÂ issuance, full-year business acquisitions at Fannie are likely to finish around $0.906 trillion — the best year since volume reached an all-time high of $1.4 trillion in 2003.
At Ginnie Mae, fixed-rate issuance was $36.364 billion in December, off from $37.844 billion a month earlier but better than $23.882 billion a year earlier.
Ginnie’s business totaled $378.766 billion for all of 2012, more than $264.1 billion in 2011 and its best year since 2009, when issuances totaled $431 billion.
