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WASHINGTON – April 30, 2010 – Uncle Sam's share of the mortgage business just keeps getting bigger.

Four government institutions backed 96.5 percent of home loans in the first quarter of 2010, trade publication Inside Mortgage Finance says. That's up from about 90 percent for all of 2009.

After the mortgage industry cratered in 2007, Wall Street investors disappeared. Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, the Federal Housing Administration and the Veterans Administration picked up the slack.

Fannie and Freddie, which are effectively owned by the government, package mortgages into bonds and sell them to investors with a government guarantee. Loans backed by the FHA and VA are sold as investments by Ginnie Mae, a government agency.

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