meltdown

Fannie Mae, the government-sponsored lending giant, posted an unexpectedly large $2.2-billion loss in the 2008's first quarter.

How could one be less optimistic than a Wall Street housing analyst? Ask Fannie Mae, which just told analysts they'd strayed a little too far onto the sunny side. Expected to lose 81 cents a share on its gigantic portfolio of mortgages and securities, today the institution announced it had lost $2.57 a share, thanks to plummeting house prices and soaring delinquencies. Markets were taken aback. Fannie Mae, along with brother institution Freddie Mac, buys more than 75% of the mortgages in the United States. When it sneezes, your house gets double pneumonia.