Sentence:  Bankers who had been reluctant to lend without better security than the house itself got that security from the U. S. government ; householders who had been unable to pick up the burden of short-term high interest <WSD>mortgages</WSD> found they could borrow for twenty-five years at 4 per cent , under government aegis . 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  a conditional conveyance of property as security for the repayment of a loan