NEW YORK, Nov 5 (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve bought $16 billion net of agency mortgage-backed securities in the latest week, the New York Fed said on its website on Thursday.

That was down from the previous week's net purchases of $18 billion.

The purchases brought the U.S. central bank's purchase of mortgage bonds guaranteed by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae to roughly $993 billion since January.

The Fed said it bought $16 billion gross of agency MBS from Oct. 29 through Nov. 4. It did not sell mortgage securities during that period.

The Fed aims to buy $1.25 trillion of agency MBS in a bid to bring down mortgage rates and to stimulate the battered housing sector and the overall economy.

(For more details on the purchases, please click on: here)