Fannie Mae to Buy Family Savings’ Mortgages : Finance: The black-owned thrift will sell home loans totaling $5 million. The deal will provide funds for up to 50 new borrowers.

In a move designed to boost home mortgage lending in South Los Angeles, the Federal National Mortgage Assn. on Friday will announce plans to buy $5 million in home loans originated by a black-owned Los Angeles-based thrift, Family Savings.

Although the Federal National Mortgage Assn., known as Fannie Mae, has made much larger loan-purchasing commitments with groups of other banks and savings and loans, this is one of the first times it has focused on a single independent financial institution to improve lending in a specific community.

The move comes at a time when many large Southland banks have come under fire for failing to aggressively market home loans in black and Latino communities.

“This is the first deal we’ve done with them,” said Mark Adams, a spokesman in Fannie Mae’s western regional offices. “We’ve done a lot of business with Great Western (Bank) and the B of A’s of the world,” he said, referring to Bank of America. “But this is the first time we’ve worked with a single independent institution dedicated to making a commitment to low- and moderate-income” home buyers. He said the money will provide home mortgages to about 50 home buyers.

As part of the deal, Family and Fannie Mae will hold a meeting today with realtors from central Los Angeles to educate them about various mortgage programs, many aimed at low- and moderate-income home buyers.

Under a program that is also available through a number of lenders in addition to Family Savings, a home buyer without a formal credit history can use such non-traditional means as utility, telephone and rental payments to establish good credit.

Borrowers can also spend up to 33% of their monthly income on housing payments rather than the traditional lending limit of 28%. And they can borrow up to 95% of the purchase price of a home, with a 3% cash payment from their own funds.

The 2% balance of the down payment can come from a gift from a relative or from a government or nonprofit agency.

Fannie Mae is a quasi-government enterprise that Congress chartered in 1938 to funnel money from Wall Street into housing.

Last year, Fannie Mae purchased $37.2 billion worth of mortgages on the secondary market from banks, thrifts and other lenders.

Fannie Mae’s loan-purchasing agreement with Family Savings, a 43-year-old savings bank headquartered in the Crenshaw area, will be formally announced to the thrift’s board today.