Mortgage finance giant Freddie Mac FMCC.OB said on Monday it would ask for an additional $1.5 billion from taxpayers due to losses stemming from the weak housing market.

The company reported a comprehensive loss in the second quarter of $1.1 billion. Despite income of $1 billion, the company registered a net worth deficit that it must ask the government to make up, bringing the total it has needed to seek to $66.2 billion.

It said it expects home prices to decline in the near term and its credit losses to remain elevated in the second half of the year.

Labor market weakness and households' worries about their financial security dampened home sales during the quarter, Freddie Mac chief executive Charles Haldeman said.

While we expect some improvement in home sales during the second half of the year, our outlook for the single-family housing market remains cautious, he said.

(Reporting by Mark Felsenthal; Editing by Neil Stempleman and Andrew Hay)

Freddie mac Fannie mae