Rock-bottom mortgage rates appear to be starting to pay off for Fannie Mae.
The government-sponsored enterprise reported Friday that its "commitments to purchase" number spiked in August to $59.9 billion, the strongest reading of the year, and the best showing since December 2010 when refinancings were particularly strong.
The commitment to purchase figure is an indicator of future loan purchase activity in the secondary market. In July the reading was a much lower $43 billion.
In August, Fannie bought $44.3 billion of mortgages from its approved seller/servicers, a 13% jump from the previous month. But compared with August 2010, loan acquisitions were down 24%.
The GSE also had other good news to report: the serious delinquency rate on its single-family book of business declined to 4.03% in August, compared with 4.7% a year earlier.
Although these new data points might suggest that Fannie could be on the road to recovery, its regulator, Ed DeMarco noted in a recent speech that the GSE and its sister company, Freddie Mac, "will not be able to earn their way back to a condition that allows them to emerge from conservatorship."
