Fannie Mae Sees Pickup in New Business

""Fannie Mae's"":http://www.fanniemae.com/portal/index.html Book of Business kicked off 2013 with another decline, the mortgage giant reported Friday.

The GSE's total ""Book of Business"":http://www.fanniemae.com/resources/file/ir/pdf/monthly-summary/013113.pdf shrank 1.8 percent in January, falling to $3.186 trillion from December's $3.190 trillion. Though it saw a month-over-month drop, [COLUMN_BREAK]

the book started off the year better than it did in January 2012, when the company reported a total of $3.181 trillion.

While overall growth was negative, new business picked up. Fannie Mae reported $88.4 billion in new business acquisitions, up from $71.9 billion in December and $63.9 billion the previous year.

Fannie Mae's gross mortgage portfolio--which rose in December after more than a year of declines--plummeted in January, falling to $620.5 billion from $633.1 billion before, bringing its compounded growth rate to a negative value of 21.4 percent.

Delinquency measures were mixed: The single-family delinquency rate fell 11 basis points to 3.18 percent in January, while the multifamily delinquency inched up for the first time since last August to settle at 0.35 percent.

Fannie Mae recorded 14,923 loan modifications in January, up from 12,095 in December.