Red tape, investors hamper housing aid-US official

Lockhart, the chief regulator for housing finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, told a U.S. House of Representatives' Financial Services subcommittee that one part of the program that would pay mortgage companies cash to reduce a borrower's payments to 31 percent of their income would not see significant results until "current activities ramp up in late summer."

The Obama administration has tapped Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to coordinate the bulk of the housing rescue but they have only been able to reach a small faction of troubled borrowers.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac control 30.4 million home loans, but they have been able to steer less than 9,000 troubled borrowers towards an emergency sale that avoids foreclosure, Lockhart said. In the first three months of the year, the companies foreclosed on 41,264 properties, he said.