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WASHINGTON – Oct. 22, 2010 – The government bailout of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac likely will cost taxpayers $154 billion – somewhat more than originally anticipated but less than recent worst-case projections, according to government estimates released Thursday.

Since the government-sponsored mortgage giants already have received $135 billion in Treasury Department funds, they likely would draw another $19 billion by 2013 to offset losses from the mortgage crisis.

“Today’s projections show that, in the most likely economic scenario, nearly 90 percent of the losses at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are already behind us,” says Jeffrey Goldstein, Treasury’s undersecretary for domestic finance.

The government took over the two finance firms in September 2008 as they teetered in the mortgage crisis. Fannie and Freddie buy mortgages from banks and other lenders. They purchased 62 percent of all new mortgages the first half of 2010, according to trade publication Inside Mortgage Finance.

The $154 billion estimate represents the middle ground of three possible scenarios laid out by the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which regulates Fannie and Freddie. It uses Moody’s Analytics estimates showing home prices likely will fall another 8 percent by the third quarter of 2011.

Under Moody’s “stronger-recovery” scenario, which assumes a smaller home price decline, the bailouts would cost $142 billion. If the economy slips back into recession, costs could climb to $259 billion.

All these figures exclude dividends paid, or expected to be paid, to Treasury based on its preferred shares in Fannie and Freddie. If those amounts were included, the companies are expected to draw $221 billion to $363 billion by 2013. That includes the $148 billion they’ve already received.

The middle scenario of $238 billion, including dividends, is 20 percent more than the up to $200 billion estimated in 2008. But earlier this year, Edward DeMarco, FHFA acting director, said the tab could hit $400 billion. “It cost a lot less than what people feared, largely because the economy has stabilized,” says Moody’s chief economist Mark Zandi.

Still, the bailout is far costlier than other government rescues. Bailouts of the financial firms and auto companies have cost taxpayers $50 billion.

© Copyright 2010 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc., Paul Davidson.