Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, commonly known as Freddie Mac, privately owned, government-sponsored organization that uses private capital to buy home mortgages as a means to help lower housing costs. A sister institution to the Federal National Mortgage Association, as well as a sometime competitor, Freddie Mac aims to foster liquidity, stability, and affordability in the U.S. mortgage market to give Americans the opportunity to afford housing. Chartered by Congress in 1970, it purchases mortgages from a variety of lenders and issues numerous publicly offered securities backed by those mortgages; it also retains some securities in its portfolio. One of the country's biggest buyers of home mortgages, by the early years of the 21st cent. Freddie Mac had provided help to over 46 million families, or approximately one in every six American homes. However, disclosures in 2003 that Freddie Mac had misstated its earnings for 2000-2002 damaged its credibility. The corporation has its headquarters in McLean, Va.