Ginnie Mae - which expands the supply of affordable mortgage funds for low- and moderate-income homebuyers - hit an important milestone on November 20, 2002. Ginnie Mae reached the $2 trillion mark in mortgage-backed securities, which means it has enabled thousands of lenders to provide additional low-cost mortgage funds, and help tens of millions of families become homeowners.

"Reaching this milestone means that more than 27 million families have had access to affordable housing or lower mortgage costs since Ginnie Mae began in 1968," Ginnie Mae President Ronald Rosenfeld said.

Rosenfeld commemorated the achievement at an event on Wednesday with GMAC Commercial Mortgage (GMACCM), the company that originated the milestone security.

GMAC Commercial Holding Corp. is a leading financial services resource for the global commercial real estate industry. The company, through its varied business units and subsidiaries, is a single-source provider of loan originations, servicing, asset management, investment management and technology services. GMACCH has a servicing portfolio approaching $160 billion.

The Government National Mortgage Association, known as Ginnie Mae, is a wholly owned federal corporation within the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Ginnie Mae pioneered the mortgage-backed security (MBS), issuing the very first in 1970. A mortgage-backed security enables a mortgage lender to sell mortgage loans that it has issued to investors. This, in effect, recycles the loan funds and enables the lender to make more mortgage loans. Ginnie Mae mortgage-backed securities are extremely popular with both institutional and individual investors because only Ginnie Mae MBS's are backed by the full faith and credit of the United States, and have the same sterling credit rating and lack of risk as do securities issued by the United States Treasury.