Gov't likely to keep big mortgage market role

``The Obama administration will begin tackling this dilemma next Tuesday at a public conference on the future of the mortgage system. Fannie and Freddie lost a combined $9 billion in the April-to-June quarter and have needed more than $148 billion to stay afloat since the government rescued them nearly two years ago... "When Congress overhauls the housing finance system, it's going to have to preserve something close to the status quo," said Jaret Seiberg, an analyst with Concept Capital's Washington Research Group. "Our whole housing system is built upon the ability of borrowers to get 30-year fixed-rate mortgages. You just can't remove that product from the market." ''