Central Bancorp Inc., parent company of Central Bank in Somerville, has reported net income of $366,000 for the quarter ended Dec. 31, compared to net income of $3.9 million for the same quarter last year.

For the nine months ended Dec. 31, 2009, the company reported net income of $1.3 million compared to net loss of $5.1 million in 2008.

The financial results for both 2008 periods were significantly impacted by the September 2008 conservatorship of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that resulted in a $9.4 million impairment of the value of the company’s investment in the preferred stock of those companies. No tax benefit was recorded during the quarter ended September 2008 in connection with the impairment charge as the losses were initially considered capital losses and there were insufficient capital gains to offset such losses, according to a statement.

However, during the subsequent quarter ended Dec. 31, 2008, the company recognized a tax benefit of approximately $3.5 million on the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac impairment charges due to the Oct. 3, 2008 enactment of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, which permitted the company to treat losses incurred on the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac preferred stock as ordinary losses for federal income tax purposes.