Bachmann mortgage likely used federal program

WASHINGTON, July 27 (UPI) -- Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., a critic of government-backed home loan programs, apparently benefited from the programs, a document review indicated.

Mortgage experts who reviewed her loan papers said Bachmann -- a GOP presidential hopeful -- took out a loan in 2008 to buy a home in the Twin Cities suburb of Stillwater, Minn., that offered lower costs to the borrower through one of the federally subsidized programs, The Washington Post reported Tuesday.

Bachmann has criticized Federal National Mortgage Association and Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp., blaming the programs for helping to create the meltdown in the housing and financial markets in 2008.

A few weeks before Bachmann called for dismantling the programs, she and her husband signed a $417,000 mortgage to help finance a 5,200-square-foot golf-course-abutting home, public records show. Experts who examined the documents for The Washington Post said they were certain the loan was backed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac.

The mortgage experts said the Bachmanns bought the home using strategies typically used when credit was easier. With their existing home still on the market, the Bachmanns assumed liability for the $417,000 mortgage and a $249,999 secured line of credit backed by the residence, records show.

The $417,000 mortgage was the cap of what either program would lend in her region in 2008, the experts told the Post.