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WASHINGTON – Government-controlled mortgage buyers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac on weekday reportable narrower losses in the final three months of terminal year, but apiece asked for more money from taxpayers.

Fannie Mae posted a expiration of $2.1 1000000000 for the October-December quarter, after commercialism of $2.15 1000000000 in dividends to preferred stock that is mostly owned by the federal government. It has requested an added $2.6 1000000000 in federal aid, slightly more than the $2.5 1000000000 it wanted in the preceding quarter.

Freddie Mac managed a $1.7 1000000000 expiration for the final lodge of terminal year, after the commercialism of $1.6 1000000000 in preferred dividends. It has asked for an added $500 meg in federal assistance — up from the $100 meg it wanted in the July-September lodge of 2010.

Fannie Mae also reportable a $21.7 1000000000 expiration for every of 2010, narrowed from a expiration of $74.4 1000000000 the assemblage before.

Freddie Mac's expiration terminal assemblage was $19.8 billion, compared with a $25.7 1000000000 expiration in 2009.

"The good programme is that their losses are shrinking," said suffragist Sanders, a academic of actual realty direction at martyr Mason University in Fairfax, Va.

The intense news? "This is just the stabilize before the storm. ... They're feat to be impact with whatever staggering losses," Sanders said.

The continuing wearing of the structure market, and a coming wave of foreclosures that had been place on stop because of distributed problems with lenders' documents, could alter significant losses for Fannie and Freddie in the near future, Sanders suggested.

The polity rescued the digit mortgage giants in Sept 2008 to counterbalance their losses on soured mortgage loans. It estimates the bailouts will outlay taxpayers as much as $259 billion.

Washington-based Fannie Mae and McLean, Va.-based Freddie Mac possess or indorse about half of every mortgages in the U.S., or nearly 31 meg bag loans worth more than $5 trillion. Along with another federal agencies, they played whatever conception in nearly 90 percent of newborn mortgages over the past year.

Fannie and Freddie acquire bag loans from banks and another lenders, collection them into bonds with a indorse against choice and sell them to investors around the world.

The government's estimated outlay of bailing discover the mortgage giants farther exceeds the $133.7 1000000000 Fannie and Freddie hit conventional from taxpayers so far. That would make theirs the costliest bailout of the financial crisis.

The digit hit been impact by large losses on venturous mortgages purchased from 2005 through 2008. The companies hit tightened their lending standards after those loans started to go bad. Default rates on newborn loans are farther lower.

The Obama brass undraped a plan early this period to slowly modify the digit mortgage giants. The aim is to diminish the government's persona in the mortgage system. The offering would produce decades of federal contract aimed at effort Americans to acquire homes and probably would make bag loans more expensive.

Exactly how farther the government's persona in mortgages would be low was mitt to Congress to decide. But every three options the brass presented would create a structure direction grouping that relies farther more on private money.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner will grappling questions from lawmakers incoming week at a congressional chance on the proposal.

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