As many as 80 percent of Central Texans with a home loan are beholden in some way to Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, two government-supported lending agencies that are now melting down on Wall Street.

While they sound like cartoon characters, the two are The Hulk as twinseys, and if they are taken over by the government the green stuff will splatter all over the country.

That was the widespread prediction Friday after their stocks dropped to the lowest point in 17 years.

What do Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac do that’s so important to those who owe money on their home loans?

They either backed those loans or supported them in some way.

If they fail but are propped up by the government, it will make it harder for people to buy and sell homes. Two Central Texas mortgage bankers and the head of the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University, among hundreds of others, said government support of the two agencies will most assuredly happen.

“If Fannie and Freddie roll over, there will be a temporary disruption in the mortgage market,” Dr. Mark Dotzour of A&M told Reuters Friday. “It probably won’t be for a very long period. We have to hope that the government has contingency plans in place for such an event. Ultimately, two groups will pay to clean up this mess: working people who pay taxes and people with savings who watch the purchasing power of their retirement nest egg decline as the value of the U.S. dollar continues to plummet.”

Paul Cox, a Temple-area mortgage broker with Network Funding Corp., predicted that the predicament created by Fannie and Freddie will mean those who want to borrow money to buy a home will have a harder time meeting the guidelines.

Mike Cannatti, an Austin mortgage broker with Network, urged calm in the Central Texas marketplace, saying the two giants won’t fall because the government will catch them.

And he said the difference will be seen mostly by people who under rational circumstances would not be able to qualify for a loan anyway - people with too little income and too small a down-payment going into a deal.

Terri Covington, head of the Board of Realtors for Temple and Belton, said she’s learned from conversations with bankers and others in finance that what’s happening to Fannie and Freddie right now is an over-reaction and that the crisis is one created by those with an emotional more than a financial stake in the outcome.

“This is not necessarily a bad thing,” she said. “We’re just correcting to what should have been seen two years ago (in terms of reasonable demands by lenders that borrowers be able to perform).”

Central Texas has largely avoided the mortgage lending crisis that’s gripped Wall Street and brought down major brokerage firms, Cannatti said.

“Thank God we are where we are,” he said.

If it’s true that Fannie and/or Freddie are involved in 75 percent of the home loans made in Central Texas, they would have had a hand in lending for 585 homes sold so far in Temple and Belton alone this year. Those loans would have totaled at most $81 million, according to Multiple Listing Service information.