The Wall Street Journal reported today that Fannie Mae, which since 1938 has provided liquidity for mortgage lending is seeing at least some temporary positive signs.The Journal's Heard on the Street column reported that Fannie Mae, for the first month did not have to borrow from the United States Treasury for the first time since September 2008, when it was put into government conservatorship.

The organization saw improvement in it's credit quality, only needing $2 billion more in provisions for credit losses, as opposed to $10.5 billion in the same period 1 year ago. This shows, according to the article, improved credit quality. In addition, higher quality mortgages issued after 2009 have also contributed to the improvement.

Fannie Mae also cited that the serious delinquent rate for single family homes dropped to 3.67% in the first quarter, down from 5.47% from the year before.

In regards to the issue of loan modifications, the Wall Street Journal reported that 84% of the loans modified in the 4th quarter of 2011 were current after 3 months, as opposed to 81% for the 4th quarter of 2010. However, for those loans modified in the 4th quarter of 2010, only 68% of those loans are still current.

Fannie Mae was created in 1938 for the purpose of providing liquidity to mortgage lenders. Fannie Mae purchases mortgages from banks, and repackages those loans into Mortgage Backed Securities (MBS). These new securities are then sold to investors. This frees up the capital of mortgage lenders, who in turn make new mortgage loans.