Freddie Mac, Housing Market | featured news

The housing and mortgage markets aren't likely to improve much over the next year, which will make it harder for the government to reduce its support of the sector, Freddie Mac's chief executive said on Monday.

That figure, projected through 2013, represents a worst-case scenario that assumes a double-dip recession, the Federal Housing Finance Agency says. The finance giants have so far received about $148 billion in taxpayer funds.

Federal Housing Finance Agency is seeking billions in repayment from banks that sold bad loans to the mortgage giants to help offset taxpayer losses, but some financial institutions are balking.

The U.S. government's role in housing finance should undergo "fundamental change," but it should still provide some guarantees in the mortgage market, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said on Tuesday.

Freddie Mac said Thursday the going rate on a 30-year fixed rate mortgage fell to 4.69%, its lowest level since the company started keeping track 38 years ago.

US home loan giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are to cease trading on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).

Mortgage rates generally fell again this week, with the average rate on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages reaching the lowest level in at least 38 years, according to Freddie Mac's weekly survey.

Rates can fall to 2%--if you know how to play the game.

Mortgage rates fell this week, with the average rate on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages dropping back below 5%, according to Freddie Mac's (FRE) weekly survey of mortgage rates released Thursday.

Freddie Mac, facing mounting damage from the U.S. housing crisis, said Wednesday it will ask the government for nearly $31 billion in additional aid after posting a gargantuan loss of more than $50 billion last year.