UPDATE 1-Fannie Mae's mortgage portfolio shrinks in January
(Adds details, Freddie Mac January portfolio details)
NEW YORK, Feb 26 (Reuters) - Fannie Mae, the largest U.S. home funding company, on Monday said its retained mortgage portfolio fell by a 4.8 percent annual rate in January, after expanding in December but shrinking for 2006 as a whole.
The company's mortgage portfolio declined to $721.4 billion in January after growing by an annualized 12.3 percent in December and falling by 0.4 percent for all of last year.
Fannie Mae (FNM.N) has been limiting its mortgage holdings under an agreement with its federal regulator, the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, while the company works through accounting and financial reporting problems.
The company said new business acquisitions dipped to $51.1 billion last month compared with $57.8 billion in December. Its net retained commitments to purchase mortgages shriveled to $1.1 billion from $14.9 billion in that time.
Fannie Mae expects $2.3 trillion of single-family mortgages will be created this year, down from last year's $2.5 trillion. A drop in demand for loans to purchase homes will be the main catalyst, the company said in its monthly business summary.
Last week, Freddie Mac (FRE.N), the second-largest buyer of U.S. home loans, said its portfolio grew by an annualized 4.4 percent in January to $706.2 billion. It holdings fell by 0.9 percent for all of last year.
