Last week marked the fourth anniversary of the federal government’s takeover of the government-sponsored entities (GSEs) …
Fannie Mae
Why is Ed DeMarco Blocking a Win-Win Housing Program?
Widespread principal reduction for underwater homes has long been the Holy Grail for many observers of the housing market, as well as for those who believe the weak housing market is one of the heaviest burdens weighing on the …
Congressmen Accuse Fannie and Freddie Boss of Ideological Bias
Updated at 1:30 p.m.
There’s a sizable portion of the American public that’s against bailing out underwater American homeowners under any circumstances. That sentiment was most eloquently summed up by CNBC’s Rick …
Building a Better Bailout: Can Fannie and Freddie Help American Homeowners?
Since the financial crisis, American taxpayers have collectively made all sorts of investments that would have been unthinkable ten years ago. We bought stakes in the auto and insurance industries and, perhaps most significantly, …
Is Fannie and Freddie Honcho Ed DeMarco “America’s Most Dangerous Man?”
Ed DeMarco, acting head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), doesn’t have the look of a comic-book super-villain, but if you listen to some of the barbs his critics hurl at him, DeMarco is more dastardly than The Joker …
Plotting the Future of Fannie and Freddie
One of the many cans being kicked down Washington’s boulevards these days is the government conservatorship of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. In 2008, at the height of the financial crisis, Congress and the Bush administration …
Credit Standards May Finally Be Loosening For Housing
It’s wild to think that a strawberry picker who earned $15,000 qualified for a $720,000 mortgage in 2005. But it’s just as ridiculous to think that a buyer with a credit score of 720 and who can put 20% down may not have …
A Look Inside President Obama’s New Housing Proposals
President Obama held a rally yesterday in Falls Church, Virginia, where he provided more details concerning his plan, mentioned briefly in his state of the union speech, to stabilize the housing market. The centerpiece of the plan is a new program that would expand HARP to many homeowners whose loans are not backed by government-owned …
Does Obama Finally Have a Plan to Fix the Housing Mess?
Perhaps the single biggest headwind the American economy faces, rivaled only by unemployment, is the dismal housing market. American’s biggest source of wealth has been decimated over the past six years, so it was no surprise …
Housing Survey: Americans Pessimistic, but ‘Would Buy’ If They Had to Move
Pity the American consumer, especially when it comes to housing. A large proportion of those surveyed (43%) in a recent Fannie Mae poll about homeownership and the economy report that their expenses are “significantly higher” …
Evidence of ‘Robo-Signing’ In Disputed Fannie and Freddie Mortgage Deals
Long before the banks started evicting delinquent homeowners, Wall Street, it appears, used robo-signers to ink mortgage deals that would eventually cost investors tens of billions of dollars and in part led to the financial crisis.
Why Sallie Mae Should Change Its Name
When the Student Loan Marketing Association was founded in 1972, it was a government-sponsored enterprise — like Fannie and Freddie.
