Fannie Mae, which took 15.2 billion in government aid on March 31st, is now asking for an additional $19 billion due to an “unprecedented” housing market slump.? The first quarter loss of Fannie Mae was reported at $23.2 billion or $4.09 a share which pushes Fannie’s net worth into the negative.? The question we must now ask is how much more money are Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac going to need to function?

Last year the government decided they would start “bailing out” the mortgage lenders by propping up Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.? Well, little did the American public realize that this would continue for over a year and BILLIONS of dollars would be used.? It is possible the government knew the depth of the subprime mortgage crisis but they sure didn’t rely that message through the media.

Now we have to wonder if it will get even worse.? The overall housing market continues to decline in value as shown by the Case/Shiller Index and we don’t really know if we will see a bottom anytime soon or not.? We can only hope that the extremely low mortgage rates will spark interest in the housing market and put a bottom in home prices.? The only way we will figure this out is with time.