WASHINGTON -- Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac served borrowers somewhat richer than those served by lenders in the primary market in 1993.
According to data released under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act, 70.3% of loans bought in 1993 by Fannie Mae, the Federal National Mortgage Association, had gone to borrowers who were at or above median income.
At Freddie Mac, the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp., 71.1% of loans bought in 1993 had been made to borrowers in that category. In the primary market, 67.9% of loans went to such borrowers.
Most business at the agencies and in the primary market was done with borrowers who made more than 120% of the median income.
At Fannie Mae, 55% of purchased loans had been made to borrowers in that category. At Freddie, 55.6% of purchased loans fell into that category. In the primary market, 53% of loans went to such borrowers.
Fannie Mae spokesman David Jeffers said the numbers gathered under HMDA were "irrelevant" for the secondary market, given the "real-time data that we are providing the [Department of Housing and Urban Development] on our purchasing activity."
But Mr. Jeffers declined to share the agency's own findings on how its business broke out last year.
He said preliminary findings suggested Fannie Mae is doing better than HMDA numbers would show.
Compared to 1992, both agencies and the primary market did more business with lower-income borrowers in 1993.
Meanwhile, the HMDA data also revealed that, in 1993, 87.58% of loans bought by Fannie and 87.21% bought by Freddie were made to white borrowers.
That was almost exactly how the numbers broke out in 1992.
At Fannie Mae, 2.24% of loans bought in 1993 were made to black borrowers, up from 2.0% in 1992. At Freddie, 1.85% of loans bought in 1993 were made to black borrowers, up from 1.6% in 1992.
