House Committee Staffer: No Rush to Restructure FanFred

There will be no "great rush" to restructure Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac until the private sector is capable of providing affordable mortgage credit again, according to a key housing staffer on the House Financial Services Committee. Staffer Scott Olson told housing advocates that Fannie, Freddie and Ginnie Mae dominate the secondary mortgage market and they have become instrumentalities of the government's approach to the housing crisis. "They are all we've got these days," he said. Any changes to their structure would have a "significant real world impact," and "people are going to be wary of any precipitous change," he said during a National Low-Income Housing Coalition panel discussion on the future of the government sponsored enterprises. Mr. Olson noted that his boss, committee chairman Barney Frank, D-Mass., is interested in making the temporary $729,750 GSE loan limit permanent. The loan limit will drop back to $417,000 at yearend unless Congress extends the $729,750 limit or makes it permanent. In passing the GSE reform bill last year, Congress directed Fannie and Freddie to provide affordable housing support for manufactured housing, affordable housing preservation and rural housing. "It is very important that they don't exit from these areas," Mr. Olson said.