Mortgage loans financed through savings deposits in Braziltotaled 4 billion reais in August, up 5.2% from the previous month butdown 31.5% from year-agolevels, according to figures released by mortgage lenders association Abecip.

Between January and August, mortgage lending financingshrank 46.2% from the same period of 2015 to 30.4 billion reais.

Meanwhile, the number of properties financed in Augusttotaled 18,000, up 3.9% from July but down 36.1% from a year ago.

As of Sept. 29, US$1was equivalent to 3.22 Brazilian reais.