21.   The bid to buy the mortgage was the second offer Zell has made to gain control of Rockefeller Center.

22.   The company buys home mortgages from lenders and then resells them to investors as mortgage-backed bonds.

23.   The company buys home mortgages to hold in its portfolio or package as mortgage-backed securities.

24.   The foundation is a unit of Washington-based Fannie Mae, a federally chartered company that buys mortgages and sells guaranteed mortgage-backed securities.

25.   The higher the demand for Freddie Mac securities, the more profitable it is for the company to buy mortgages from banks.

26.   The investor, Andrew Penson, who heads Argent Ventures, bought the mortgage from a consortium led by Bank of Montreal.

27.   The house had been taken over by Freddie Mac, the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp., which had bought the mortgage.

28.   The two companies buy home mortgages from lenders and bundle those loans together to make mortgage-backed securities.

29.   The two mortgage giants buy mortgages from lenders, repackage them and sell as securities.

30.   To find out if you can apply for the program, ask the firm that collects your mortgage payments whether Fannie Mae has bought your mortgage.