Freddie Sees $5.5B-$12B More Losses (Marcy Gordon)

  By MARCY GORDON -- Associated Press

  Dec. 11, 2007 -- WASHINGTON -- The chief executive of Freddie Mac estimated Tuesday the mortgage finance company will lose an additional $5.5 billion to $7.5 billion over the next few years as the housing crisis worsens and home-loan defaults rise.

  The government-sponsored company has already logged about $4.5 billion in projected losses during the first nine months of this year.

  "I honestly think it's going to get tougher before it gets better," Richard Syron, the company's chairman and CEO, said in a discussion with financial analysts in New York.

  Freddie's shares fell $1.80, or more than 5 percent, to $33.24 in morning trading.

  While the mortgage crisis has brought a rising wave of foreclosure notices into public view, less evident have been "pictures of people standing with furniture on the lawn" after being forcibly evicted from their homes, Syron said. "As that begins to happen, and it will happen, I am afraid of the impact that this has." 

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