• Most Popular
  • Most Shared

UPDATE 1-US package may up GSE loan cap to $625,000-sources

Thu Jan 24, 2008 12:46pm EST

(Adds detail)

Stocks  |  Bonds

WASHINGTON, Jan 24 (Reuters) - The loan limit U.S. mortgage funders Fannie Mae FNM.N and Freddie Mac FRE.N can finance will be raised to $625,000 from the current $417,000 in an economic stimulus package now being put together by lawmakers, sources familiar with the negotiations said on Thursday.

While many lawmakers favor a plan that would raise the conforming loan limit across the country to $625,000, several sources said the final plan might be narrowly tailored to raise the loan level for some high-cost metro areas as high as $700,000.

A U.S. Treasury Department spokeswoman said on Thursday that the department opposes expanding the loan size for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac before lawmakers pass comprehensive reform. (Reporting by John Poirier and Patrick Rucker; Editing by Andrea Ricci)

Stocks
Bonds


More from Reuters

Demonstrator holds a signboard with a slogan "Bla bla bla ACT NOW" during a rally outside the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen December 12, 2009. REUTERS/Christian Charisius

"Polluters are given rights to continue their dirty habits"

A climate change scientist blasts proposals for a cap and trade system, arguing it allows dirty industries to continue polluting, instead of rewarding innovation.  Full Article | Full Coverage 

    Climate Conference
    People walk by a Bank of America branch in New York. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson

    The search is on -- again

    Bank of America has less than two weeks left before Chief Executive Ken Lewis steps down. With the top candidate out of the picture, here's a look at what might happen next.  Full Article 

    Executive compensation
    Indian woman mourns death of her relative killed in tsunami in Cuddalore. When an earthquake of magnitude 9.15 struck off Indonesia's Aceh province on December, 26, 2004, it triggered a huge tsuanmi that raced across the Indian Ocean and hit Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka and India. The worst natural disaster of the decade left 230,000 people dead or missing. Taken on December 28, 2004 by Arko Datta

    Pictures that defined a decade

    A woman's grief amid the tsunami devastation and one woman's fight against police in the Amazon are among the indelible Reuters images of the last 10 years.  Slideshow 

    Pictures