Fannie Mae Announces the Availability of True Cost Calculator on Additional Web Sites; On-Line Tool Helps Borrowers Better Consider Costs of Mortgage Products

Business Wire, August 24, 2000

Business Editors/Hi-Tech Writers

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 24, 2000

Fannie Mae (FNM/NYSE), the nation's largest source of financing for home mortgages, today announced the addition of the True Cost Calculator(TM) to nine new mortgage, real estate, and consumer Web sites.

The additional sites include Cendant Mortgage, www.cendantmortgage.com; Century21, www.century21.com; Clarity Bank, www.claritybank.com; Coldwell Banker, www.coldwellbanker.com ERA, www.era.com; Mellon Financial Corporation, www/mellon.com; MilitaryHomeLoans.com, www.militaryhomesloans.com; PHHMortgage.com, www.phhmortgage.com; and US Bank, www.usbank.com.

"We are pleased that these companies are making the True Cost Calculator available on their Web sites," said David Voth, vice president of product development at Fannie Mae. "When Fannie Mae first launched the True Cost Calculator last April, the company pledged to make it available to industry participants to link to their Web sites to help prospective home buyers to make an `apples to apples' comparison between different loan products. Fannie Mae will continue to make this valuable tool available to others who have an interest in making it available on their sites."

The True Cost Calculator can help mortgage consumers calculate all the costs of getting a mortgage, including: interest rate and points; mortgage insurance costs; appraisal fees and title insurance fees, and miscellaneous settlement charges, thereby providing a simple way for consumers to consider various mortgage options as they work with their mortgage lender.

The True Cost Calculator also allows borrowers to calculate those fees over the full term of the loan or the time they actually plan to hold the loan. By calculating the costs over the period of time the borrower actually plans to hold the loan, the True Cost Calculator can provide a more useful and realistic cost assessment.

Now consumers can log onto anyone of these Web sites to calculate and compare the true cost of the various mortgage options, then choose the best, lowest-cost option to meet their needs. For each loan a consumer is considering, the True Cost Calculator will provide an analysis that includes four key measures:

-- the True Cost Rate, which is the true cost of the mortgage,

including all costs, expressed as an annual percentage rate

based on the time the borrower actually plans to hold the

loan;

-- the True Cost Rate after taking into account the borrower's

potential tax savings;

-- the monthly mortgage payment; and

-- the estimated equity that the borrower can expect to

accumulate during the time he or she actually plans to hold

the loan.

In addition to these new sites, the True Cost Calculator also is available on Fannie Mae's consumer Web site, www.homepath.com.

Fannie Mae is a New York Stock Exchange company and the largest non-bank financial services company in the world. It operates pursuant to a federal charter and is the nation's largest source of financing for home mortgages. Over the past 31 years, Fannie Mae has provided nearly $2.9 trillion of mortgage financing for over 35 million families. More information about Fannie Mae can be found on the Internet at http://www.fanniemae.com.

True Cost Calculator is a trade mark of Fannie Mae. Unauthorized use of this mark is prohibited.

Style Usage: Fannie Mae's Board of Directors has authorized the company to operate as "Fannie Mae," and the company's stock is now listed on the NYSE as "Fannie Mae." In order to facilitate clarity and avoid confusion, news organizations are asked to refer to the company exclusively as "Fannie Mae."