A deal struck by Freddie Mac with three banks will potentially loosen up lending for luxury home buyers looking to pick up a golf retreat in Scottsdale or ski cabin in Park City.

In February, in order to inject some liquidity into the tightening mortgage market, Congress passed legislation that increased the size of loans that Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, two government-sponsored agencies, can buy. The move increased the size of mortgages those entities could purchase up from $417,000 to $729,750, however many lenders balked at offering those larger loans because they were unsure of exactly what Freddie Mac would pay for the loans. As a result, mortgages in the $417,000 to $729,750 range became something of a no-mans land for lenders.

As first reported in the Wall Street Journal today, Freddie Mac has made a 90-day commitment to Wells Fargo, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and Citigroup to tell those banks how much they will pay for these larger loans effectively making more money available for bigger mortgages. The interest rate premium for such homebuyers is likely to drop as much as an eight-tenths of a percentage point from the current rates. The Journal expect that interest rates on such mortgages will be anywhere from a half of a percentage point to three-quarters of a percentage point higher than the rates on loans under $417,000. There is a catch, however. Freddie will only buy mortgages where the loan doesn’t exceed 90 percent of the value of the home. And if prices are falling in a market, the loan can’t surpass 85 percent of the home’s value.