Fannie, Freddie Strive to Serve Housing Market, Taxpayers

Four months after the U.S. government takeover of home-mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, their chief executives and regulators again find themselves with conflicting goals.

Before the takeover, the tension was between shareholders' desire for bigger dividends and political pressure on the government-sponsored mortgage companies to support the housing market and help more low-income people afford homes. Now the conflict is between the government's efforts to spur housing with lower mortgage costs and the desire to avoid heavy loan-default losses that would be borne by taxpayers.

Fannie and Freddie over the past 18 months have gradually imposed larger surcharges ...