Freddie Mac announced on Tuesday that it is expanding available mortgage products for lenders through its online Selling System.

The new options will give lenders more flexibility, borrowers more buying power and lower monthly payments.

The web-based Selling system will offer a number of 40-year mortgage products, including a standard 40-year fixed-rate mortgage with a 40-year Alt 97 mortgage, and a 40-year version of the Freddie 100 no-down payment mortgage.

There will also be 20 more adjustable-rate mortgage products and federally insured rural housing mortgage products added to Freddie Mac's Loan Prospector automated underwriting service and its online Selling System.

Freddie Mac officials announced that they are also adding a special 40-year fixed-rate option and other more competitive selling programs for lenders.

The company is also revising its property insurance requirements to facilitate mortgage purchases in coastal markets, which are seeing increases in deductibles.

"Today's announcements underscore our commitment to respond quickly to our customer's call for more flexible products and faster decisions on one easy-to-use web-based platform," said Paul Mullings, senior vice president of Single Family Sourcing at Freddie Mac.

He continued to say that the changes "further fulfill our pledge to build new pathways into the secondary market while delivering a superior business experience to our customers."

The enhancements to Freddie Mac's lineup are scheduled to begin this summer. The announcement was planned in order to give Freddie Mac customers and other industry professionals time to prepare in order to take full advantage of the new product requirements.

Once implemented, the changes will make it possible for lenders to access, price and deliver on a flow basis every mortgage product offered by Freddie Mac.

The new line-up in 40-year mortgage products begins with a standard 40-year fixed-rate mortgage product, includes a 40-year version of the Freddie 100 no-downpayment mortgage product and the 40-year Alt 97 mortgage.

"This is just the beginning of a robust product strategy designed to give lenders a highly flexible array of 40-year products so more customers can better match their home buying ambitions with their financial circumstances," said James Cotton, vice president of Freddie Mac's Mortgage Sourcing.

The 40-year fixed-rate version of the Home Possible mortgage builds on Home Possible's standard low down payments, flexible credit underwriting and conforming conventional rates to give cash and credit strapped borrowers more buying power.

For example, using the no-downpayment Home Possible mortgage at today's rates, a borrower can take out a 40-year $200,000 mortgage with 3.5% less gross monthly income to qualify and enjoy a 4.5% cut in their monthly housing payment and 5% more homebuying power versus a 30-year version of the same mortgage.

The Home Possible program was designed in 2005 as a way to expand affordable homeownership by enabling qualified borrowers to put as little as $500 of their own funds towards the downpayments or closing costs on a single family property.

Changes to the Home Possible program includes a cut in the minimum borrower contribution for financing three to four unit properties from 5% to 3%. Borrowers will be allowed to use Mortgage Credit Certificates and Rural Housing Service Leveraged Seconds.