WASHINGTON, DC-Freddie Mac posted a quarterly net loss of $4.7 billion and is asking the Treasury Department to inject another $1.8 billion, for a total of $63.1 billion in government aid since the crisis began. This time last year, Freddie Mac reported a net income of $302 million. This quarter’s loss is the eleventh out of the past 12 quarters. 

Fannie Mae also reported a net loss last week for its quarterly report: $1.2 billion, which was down from its net loss of $14.8 billion in the same period a year earlier. It was the smallest loss the GSE has had in three years. Fannie tapped the Treasury for $1.5 billion, bringing the government's rescue tab to $86.1 billion. 

Fannie also reported a 3% drop in the volume of nonperforming loans during the second quarter to $217 billion, which was still a 22% increase from a year ago but at least is heading in the right direction. Freddie Mac, by contrast, continues to see nonperforming loans rise, reaching $118 billion. That is 2% for the quarter and 36% from a year earlier.

It is a mistake, however, to make inferences from any short-term divergence of trends in the GSEs’ nonperforming loan pools, Sam Chandan, global chief economist and EVP of Real Capital Analytics, tells GlobeSt.com. "Conditions in the housing market remain in flux thanks to timetables around policy interventions like the homebuyer tax credit and state foreclosure moratoria, for example," he says. "The second quarter filings reinforce that the GSEs still face significant challenges in returning to a measure of health."