Honestly, I forgot the U.S. Treasury Department was buying mortgage-backed securities (MBS), since its program is much smaller than that of the Federal Reserve. Here’s an update from National Mortgage News (bold added): The Treasury Department has purchased over $200 billion in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgage-backed securities to support the mortgage market, but now it has to decide if it will continue that support. “We expect to provide guidance by the end of the year,” Treasury spokeswoman Meg Reilly said. Treasury began the MBS purchase program after the two government-sponsored enterprises were placed in conservatorships in September 2008. At the time, Treasury said it would terminate the MBS purchase program by the end of 2009. During the summer, Treasury reduced its MBS purchases and it is currently buying about $10 billion a month. And NMN says the Fed has about $250 billion more in MBS purchases planned (bold added): The New York Federal Reserve Bank purchased $1.09 trillion in Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae MBS this year, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency. At the start of the program in early January, the New York Federal Reserve Bank was purchasing $20 billion to $25 billion in agency MBS a week. Now the Fed is purchasing agency MBS at a $16 billion weekly rate, which means it could continue at that pace for another 10 weeks.

Read more here – Treasury mum on halting mortgage-security purchases