Fannie’s Book Shrinks Some More in August

Fannie Mae's book of business shrank in August at its steepest rate in more than a year, according to the company's latest volume summary.

The company reported a compounded growth rate of -4.0 percent in its book for August, putting its total value down to $3.1 trillion. It was the ninth straight month of contraction.

Year-to-date, the book's annualized growth rate came to -2.3 percent as of August 31.

Numbers were down all around throughout the month, with Fannie's gross mortgage portfolio seeing the sharpest decline. According to the company, the portfolio fell at an annualized rate of 16.7 percent, totaling $443.1 billion as purchases waned and sales jumped.

New business acquisitions were also down for Fannie, slipping from July's year-high of nearly $40 billion to $37.7 billion.

The GSE also reported another decline in single-family serious delinquencies, which were at a rate of 1.99 percent in August, just down from an even 2 percent in July. Multifamily delinquency came down as well, slipping to 0.09 percent after three straight months at 0.10 percent.