Secondary Market

Fannie Mae's book of business shrank for the sixth straight month in May as the enterprise's mortgage portfolio continued its decline. In its monthly volume summary, Fannie revealed its total book of business contracted at a compound rate of 2.4 percent in May, slightly slower than April's negative growth rate of 2.7 percent. Year-to-date, the book has seen an average annualized negative growth rate of 2.3 percent.

Freddie Mac's total mortgage portfolio decreased at an annualized rate of 2.1 percent in May, the company revealed in its latest volume summary. Purchases and issuances totaled $19.5 billion in May, down slightly from April’s figure of $19.8 billion. As of the end of May 2014, purchases and issuances totaled $91.8 billion.

A year ago, interest rates were on their way up on speculation that the Fed may soon start tapering its bond stimulus. Now that the central bank is on track to potentially end its stimulus purchases by the end of the year, rates have actually shown little movement, defying expectations. While the first quarter's economic contraction is partly responsible for rates staying put, analysts at Bankrate.com say developments overseas are also having an effect.

The FOMC concluded its June meeting with the announcement that members have once again voted to bring down the Federal Reserve's stimulative monthly asset purchases. Taking a cue from improvements in labor market indicators, household spending, and general economic activity, the committee members voted to reduce the Fed's monthly purchase of agency mortgage-backed securities (MBS) to a combined $35 billion per month.

Despite earning record incomes in 2013, neither Fannie nor Freddie are in the clear financially yet, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) said in its latest review of the two GSEs. "The Enterprises remain exposed to credit, counterparty and operational risks. Credit risk management remains a key priority for both Enterprises given their substantial amount of remaining legacy distressed assets and ongoing stress in certain housing markets," FHFA said.

Speaking before an audience at the National Housing Conference Annual Policy Symposium in Washington, D.C., Mary Miller, the Department of the Treasury's undersecretary for domestic finance, painted a grim picture of housing finance as it stands, noting any perceived health at the GSEs has been the result of circumstances that wouldn't be matched in the private market.

Ongoing settlement negotiations between Bank of America and the Justice Department reportedly reached a stalemate Monday. Citing "people briefed on the matter," the New York Times reported late Tuesday that the offer fell far short of the record $17 billion that prosecutors are seeking to resolve the state and federal investigations. BofA is seeking to continue negotiations while the government finishes readying its petition to file in federal court.

A new blog post from the Urban Institute asserts recent numbers on loan denial rates for minorities weren't too high; rather, they may have been too low. Using HMDA data, the group examined the credit profiles of applicants, noting that the denial rate really only matters for weaker credit profile applicants—they are more likely to get denied.

Fannie Mae's book of business shrank again in April, continuing an uninterrupted streak of declines that started at the end of 2013. According to the enterprise's volume summary report, the book's total value contracted in April at a compound negative growth rate of 2.7 percent. As of April 30, the book's value was an estimated $3.14 trillion.

After sinking steadily for the last 10 months, new business activity has picked up a bit for Freddie Mac—though that didn't stop its portfolio from shrinking again. The mortgage giant released Wednesday its volume summary for April, recording a negative annualized growth rate of 3.0 percent for its total mortgage portfolio. It was the highest rate of contraction since October, when the portfolio shrank at a rate of 6.4 percent.