Overall agency issuance last month was down by more than half from a year ago. As the issuance of mortgage-backed securities sank for the third consecutive month at the Government National Mortgage Association, business also tumbled at the Federal National Mortgage Association. But activity increased at the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp.
First-quarter 2010 issuance of fixed-rate MBS by the mortgage agencies was $278.1 billion, according to data reported by eMBS. Volume tumbled from $308.6 billion in the fourth-quarter 2009 and was also much lower than $340.6 billion in the first-quarter 2009.
Looking at just March, agency issuance fell to $84.3 billion from $93.1 billion a month earlier and a whopping $178.0 billion a year earlier.
Fixed-rate issuance was $34.0 billion at Fannie Mae during March, falling from $39.5 billion during February and $86.7 billion in March 2009. Year-to-date issuances at Fannie totaled $111.6 billion.
But the story was better at Freddie Mac, where fixed-rate issuances climbed to $29.9 billion from February’s $27.6 billion. Still, volume was lower than $57.4 billion in March 2009. Freddie’s year-to-date activity was $85.7 billion.
Over at government-owned Ginnie Mae, volume declined to $20.4 billion last month from February’s $26.0 billion and last year’s $33.9 billion. It was the third month in a row that issuances fell at Ginnie, which has issued $80.8 billion so far during 2010.
