Fannie Mae’s Book of Business Shows August Growth

""Fannie Mae"":http://www.fanniemae.com/portal/index.html didn't spend the end of its summer lounging ├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├óÔé¼┼ô the GSE released its Book of Business for August 2012, showing off another month of growth.

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According to Fannie Mae's monthly summary, its Book of Business grew at a compound annualized rate of 1.9 percent in August, bringing its year-to-date growth to 0.4 percent.

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The growth comes despite drops in the GSE's gross mortgage portfolio, which was brought down by slippage in sales and purchases. The portfolio's negative growth in August was 10.5 percent, while year-to-date growth shrank to negative 9.9 percent.

The gross mortgage end balance in August was $660.8 billion, a considerable year-over-year drop from $725.5 billion in August 2011.

While Fannie Mae's portfolio shrank, new business acquisitions helped keep the Book of Business active. Fannie reported 86,038 new acquisitions in August, nearly double that of August 2011. Acquisitions fell dramatically from 95,310 in March to 52,470 in April and have experienced a shaky climb back up.

The GSE was also helped up by decreases in delinquency rates. The conventional single-family serious delinquency rate fell six basis points to 3.44 percent in August, the lowest rate seen all year. In addition, the multifamily delinquency rate fell to 0.25 percent, continuing 2012's trend of month-to-month delinquency improvement.

Fannie Mae completed 15,213 loan modifications in August, bringing the year's total up to 108,626.