RENEE MONTAGNE, host: NPR's business news begins, as we often do nowadays, with housing.</s>RENEE MONTAGNE, host: Investors continue to bail on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. After trading at $60 or $70 a share just a year ago, the two mortgage giants are in the single digit range and slipping further. The worry is that the government may soon step in to save the companies and bring those single digit values down to zero.</s>RENEE MONTAGNE, host: But there's some hopeful news for struggling home owners whose mortgages are held by the bank IndyMac. That bank, you may remember, was taken over by the government earlier this summer. Now the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which is running the bank, says it will offer delinquent IndyMac borrowers new mortgages, some with interest rates as low as 3 percent. The borrowers must prove that the home is their primary residence and they can't afford it.
After trading at $60 or $70 a share a year ago, mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are in the single-digit range — and slipping further. But there's some hopeful news for struggling homeowners whose mortgages are held by IndyMac Bank, which was taken over by the government.