GSE reform

Releasing the GSEs from government conservatorship is on the agenda for the incoming Trump administration. Doing so could threaten the 30-year fixed rate mortgage.

A Congressional Budget Office report updating one from four years ago finds 60% of its 250 scenarios will result in the Treasury getting fully repaid, up from 12%.

Releasing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from conservatorship without legislation is very high risk for the shareholders, writes the chairman of Whalen Global Advisors.

President-elect Trump's victory comes with the support of a Republican Congress. Also in November, many states voted on local property tax matters.

The group is calling for the Trump administration to preserve certain features if it picks up where it left off and finishes cutting ties to the Treasury.

Trump's return to the White House is reviving the prospect of preferred stockholders getting some money back after the U.S. took control of the agencies during the 2008 financial crisis to keep the housing market from collapsing.

A former housing regulator confirmed that he anticipates a release from conservatorship would occur if Trump's elected, adding to other signs a plan is brewing.

The plan from the Heritage Foundation, a group the first Trump administration was largely in line with, would shutter CFPB, break up HUD and raise FHA premiums.

Analysts foresee less regulation and a weighty tax cut decision, but aren't confident that the former president will end GSE conservatorship.

Former Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Mark Calabria may return, but analysts told an industry meeting someone else is more likely in line for the role.

Here's how the former regulator thinks Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could exit conservatorship and where he sees the residential market headed this year and next.

Continued failure to bring Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac out of conservatorship will lead to see-saw mortgage policy every time the White House changes hands, which is against the intent of the GSE statutes that indicate a desire for stable secondary markets, writes the Principal at public affairs firm TVDC.

The verdict ends a decade-long lawsuit over the Federal Housing Finance Agency's amendment to a stock repurchase agreement in 2012.

More than any real world problem posed by IMBs, it is the government in all of its manifestations that poses a significant risk to the world of mortgage finance and the housing sector more generally, writes the Chairman of Whalen Global Advisors.

The Enterprise Regulatory Capital Framework is going to dramatically transform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pricing in ways the industry hasn't begun to contemplate, writes a former senior policy analyst at the FHFA.

Two housing-policy experts whose previous recommendations have been closely followed by the Biden administration are defending the Federal Home Loan Banks, raising the stakes in a debate over whether a major overhaul is needed.

As the GSEs enter their 15th year in conservatorship, shareholders are wondering when they'll get their company back.

Led by Rep. French Hill, the group of conservative lawmakers said the agency must do more to ensure appropriate transparency regarding any new products or activities that the enterprises undertake.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency also noted limits to its authority in efforts to free the government-sponsored enterprises from conservatorship in its report to Congress.

Moving towards bank-like capital standards for all independent mortgage banks that sell loans to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could limit consumer access to mortgage credit, writes Community Home Lenders Association executive director Scott Olson.