WASHINGTON - Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac both announced theirplans to increase their single-family mortgage loan limit to$417,000 for 2006, effective Jan. 1. The increase in conformingloan limits as determined by the Office of Federal HousingEnterprise Oversight is based on federal data on average homeprices. In 2005 the loan limit for a single-family mortgage loanwas $359,650, and in 2004 it was $333,700. Also effective Jan. 1,the new loan limits for multi-unit loans will be: two-family loans$533,850, up from $460,400 in 2005; three-family loans $645,300, upfrom $556,500 in 2005; and four-family loans $801,950, up from$691,600. The 2006 loan limit for second mortgages will be$208,500. The maximum amounts for one-to-four-family mortgages andsecond mortgages in Alaska, Hawaii, Guam and the U.S. VirginIslands are 50% higher than the limits for the rest of the U.S.Freddie Mac estimates that total mortgage interest savings for aborrower with a typical 30-year fixed-rate mortgage at the newconforming loan limit is as much as $24,700 over the life of theloan. As a result of the new loan limit, Fannie Mae estimates thatin 2006 as many as an additional 466,326 homeowners would beeligible for a conforming loan.