Fed bought $13.5 bln net in agency MBS in latest week

NEW YORK, Nov 12 (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve bought $13.5 billion net of agency mortgage-backed securities in the latest week, the New York Fed said on its website on Thursday.

That is down from the previous week's net purchases of $16 billion.

The purchases brought the U.S. central bank's purchase of mortgage bonds guaranteed by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae to roughly $1.007 trillion since January.

The Fed said it bought $45.287 billion gross of agency MBS from Nov. 5 through Nov. 11. At the same time, it sold $31.787 billion in mortgage securities.

The Fed aims to buy $1.25 trillion of agency MBS in a bid to bring down mortgage rates and to stimulate the battered housing sector and the overall economy.

(For more details on the purchases, please click on: here)

(Reporting by Julie Haviv, Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

(Reuters Messaging: julie.haviv.reuters.com@reuters.net; e-mail: julie.haviv@thomsonreuters.com; +1-646-223-6153))