WASHINGTON – A bill introduced in the Senate last week would help ease the current mortgage crisis by increasing both the number of mortgages Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac can purchase from credit unions and banks, and the conforming loan limits, allowing the two to buy some jumbo mortgages. The bill would lift the limits on Fannie Mae’s and Freddie Mac's mortgage portfolios by 10% and increase the conforming loan limit, now $417,000, by 50% in high-cost areas. Both changes would expire in one year. The approximately $145 billion in new portfolio authority would be available only for refinanced mortgages with adjustable rate loans that were scheduled for an interest-rate reset between June 2005 and December 2009.
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