FREDDIE MAC ANNOUNCES YEAR 2005 LOAN PURCHASE LIMITS

New Limits Will Save Borrowers Up to $24,800 In Interest

McLean, VA – Freddie Mac today announced an increase in its single-family mortgage loan limit from $333,700 to $359,650 effective January 1, 2005. This increase in conforming loan limits is based on the October-to-October changes in the average house prices, as published by the Federal Housing Finance Board (FHFB), and on Supervisory Guidance issued by the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight. The FHFB figures come from its monthly survey of lenders. Both new and existing homes are included in the survey.

The increase in the single-family mortgage loan limit makes it possible for an estimated 340,000 additional families to obtain lower cost mortgage financing. Freddie Mac estimates that total mortgage interest savings for a borrower with a typical 30-year fixed-rate mortgage at the new conforming loan limit is as much as $24,800 over the life of the loan.

Effective for deliveries after January 1, 2005, the new loan limits for mortgages on one-to-four family properties will be:

• $359,650 for mortgages on one-family properties (up from $333,700);
• $460,400 for mortgages on two-family properties (up from $427,150);
• $556,500 for mortgages on three-family properties (up from $516,300); and
• $691,600 for mortgages on four-family properties (up from $641,650).

Under Freddie Mac's charter, maximum original loan amounts are 50 percent higher for first mortgages on properties in Alaska, Hawaii, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Freddie Mac is a stockholder-owned corporation chartered by Congress in 1970 to create a continuous flow of funds to mortgage lenders. By supplying lenders with the money to make mortgages and packaging the mortgages into marketable securities, Freddie Mac sustains a stable mortgage credit system and reduces the mortgage rates paid by homebuyers. Over the years, Freddie Mac has opened doors for one in six homebuyers and two million renters across America.

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