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Eventually the FHFA is going to be confronted with the inevitable task of dealing with no more Fortune 50 executives available to manage these trillion dollar companies because of the noncompetitive salaries and the inability to offer a financial stake to them in the enterprises future profitability.
Navigating D.C. is hard. Our Field Guide makes it easier. Discover who’s who in D.C. and how to position your mortgage business to not just survive, but thrive in the wilds of D.C. Explore the field guide: https://t.co/bIL6hmZwLr#federalgovernment #housingmarket pic.twitter.com/NFLq78RtHZ
— SitusAMC (@situsAMC) November 15, 2021
But Comrade, our 'dear leaders' will decide when to let us have our private property rights reinstated!
Read the surprisingly well balanced article on Upzoning in the DMV (unlike their gse coverage of the defacto nationalization and their 'evil hedge fund guys narrative').
Telling is that upzoning laws at the state level was defeated in each jurisdiction. The article had fairly good coverage on the issue, but it seems to me that the issue of upzoning ignores a simple fact. Increases in net migration from new immigrants. Where do people that come from different and diverse areas of the world WANT to live? Near people that share their culture, religion, values, life experiences, and similar upbringing. I think this explains the Vietnamese community in Falls Church, the Etheopian community in Arlington, the Armenian community in Herndon, Houston, and SoCal, the Indian community in Herndon and Loudoun, the Korean community in Annandale, and on and on. Look at NYC, Italian, Chinese, et. al.
The jury is still out on whether or not upzoning adds to the 'missing middle' income affordable housing gap in jurisdictions close to the central business districts. California, Portland, and Minneapolis are good case studies.
From a purely Economics standpoint, upzoning does solve the problem of increasing the almost fixed supply of housing in jurisdictions near the CBD. But seeing how society attempts to solve this problem will likely take time.
Look for the current administration to divert much needed capital to subsidizing the upzoning issue.
"I don't think it's helpful to beat people over the head and say 'The only reason you're against this is because you're racist,' " Jawando said. "Are there people who are against this because they're racist? Sure. But is everyone? No. I think it's more that where you live is deeply personal, and change is hard."
Have the 'Woke' been woken?
Perfect! I mean industry capture of governmental bureaucracy's in DC is a major industry! Next time you are visiting DC with the family, ask the tour guide to take you to where the real center of power in DC is, K street.
Here's some color from TH on why TBTF bank lobbyists aren't in a hurry to see the gses exit CONservatorship: "From the standpoint of the creditworthiness of Fannie and Freddie’s MBS, banks are perfectly happy with them remaining in conservatorship, since they have the SPSA line from Treasury backing them. Banks aren’t the ones pushing for “recap and release” of Fannie and Freddie; they’re either opposed to it or keeping mum about it.
On your “originate and hold” question, there are a couple of things going on. First of all, banks do not seem too concerned about their recent loss of mortgage origination share to nonbanks. Since the conservatorships, two-thirds of the near-doubling in bank holdings of 1-4 family first mortgages and MBS–from $2.23 trillion at December 31, 2007 to $4.42 trillion at June 30, 2021 (I haven’t updated my data for September yet)–have come in the form of Fannie or Freddie-guaranteed MBS and REMICs. Banks don’t care who originates the mortgages that end up in those securities; they just buy them on issuance, or in the secondary market.
And, yes, banks are buying the MBS for the spread income, since their cost of consumer deposits is essentially zero (at the moment; if we see an upswing in inflation that will change). But many banks still do obtain their residential mortgages via the “originate and hold” process. And for those banks, higher guaranty fees for Fannie and Freddie are a benefit to them. All originators, including smaller banks, base their primary mortgage market quotes on the cost of selling into the secondary market. So when that cost rises because of higher guaranty fees, banks who don’t sell into the secondary market still charge the higher primary market rates, and keep the additional spread for themselves.
Banks who buy Fannie and Freddie MBS don’t get that additional funding spread (it’s absorbed by the higher guaranty fees), but they benefit through a lower capital cost. And that benefit is substantial. It’s hard to know what banks’ net funding spread on mortgages is, because we don’t know how they allocate their administrative expenses. But let’s just say it’s 80 basis points. Unsecuritized mortgages held in bank portfolios have a 50 percent Basel risk weight. On 4 percent capital, 80 basis points of net spread income results in an after-tax return on equity of 15.8 percent. Fannie and Freddie MBS, in contrast, have only a 20 percent Basel risk weight. And on top of that, the administrative costs of buying an MBS in the market are trivial compared to the “brick and mortar” cost of originating them. Banks save far more than the average 45 basis-point cost of a Fannie or Freddie guaranty fee in admin expense, but even if that were all they saved, their ROE on 80 basis points of MBS net spread income at 1.6 percent capital would be almost 40 percent.
Banks, therefore, are VERY happy with what Treasury and FHFA have done with Fannie and Freddie since the conservatorships. They’re getting higher spread income on the mortgages they originate and hold because the companies’ guaranty fees have been pushed up by 20-plus basis points (and if the Calabria capital rule is not changed will be heading materially higher), and their own capital rules allow them to save on both administrative expenses and capital costs by letting nonbanks do the origination, leaving them with very attractive amounts of (FDIC insurance-subsidized) spread income."
One of the fundamental problems with zoning is that it is almost always local and the middle upper and upper income homeowners know how to get their voices heard and other below the radar means of keeping the status quo going (e.g., no metro stations in Georgetown). Generally they don't want low income housing close by or if they want it, usually it's only in order to provide access to the low income workers that service them (e.g., The Plains, VA).
California's new statewide upzoning is the first of it's kind as I know it, I wonder if it can override the ccr's that all homeowners agree to when they buy in an HOA neighborhood?
I think generally Americans don't like governmental actors deciding sensitive issues, like allowing governmental actors to approve high density zoning adjacent or close to where they live, especially if they live in more of an open space community.
In Montgomery county, the agricultural reserved land could likely be slowly reversed allowing for the much needed higher density zoning needed to allow for the continued influx of an expanding population.
Land, they ain't making anymore of it are they or will the government via upzoning make more of it available to accommodate growing populations in areas closer in to the central business districts? Stay tuned, this one will be interesting...
I really think that the tbtf banks and the financial establishment has captured Sandra L Thompson and she's vulnerable because: (a) she's not use to the high powered lobbyists (b) she doesn't want to jeopardize her chances of a 5 year confirmation by ruffling the feathers of the public it serves and (c) the more she reverses everything her predecessor has done the more feathers she has in her cap in the eyes of the real clowns in the gubmint in charge of pulling the strings on the jb puppet.
No question that all the states benefit from the largess of Uncle Suggy to subsidize their expenses! The DC burbs especially so indirectly as about 1 in 4 or more federal dollars ends up in programs that employ a fairly well educated workforce.
I still believe that the peoples money belongs to the people and that ultimately they are much more efficient allocators of societies limited resources than the slovenly and wasteful Uncle Suggy, state or local gubmints. That's just me.
Remember, socialism is great until you run out of other peoples money to spend...
I was skimming the 2500+ page bill and searched housing and got like over 400 results! You don't happen to have a link to the latest iteration of the bill do you?
You know from what I recall western MC still has a lot of undeveloped land. As a boy I grew up in Rockville. The eastern part of the county is ripe for higher density zoning and I will have to read that article, thanks!
Appreciate you sharing that history, mine has a small window. I just got done reading this about how Arlington is trying to tackle the missing middle income housing issue, especially considering the demand associated with Amazon hq2.
https://dcist.com/story/21/11/18/arlington-virginia-missing-middle-housing/
HeeHee! No it's probably another bfd, it's where they keep the million plus original mortgage loan documents in case they need to deliver the original document to the courthouse for payoff or foreclosure. I took a tour of the place about 30 years ago, a massive walk in fireproof bank vault. Today, I think it's all electronic and done via a 3rd party vendor but that maybe why.
Also, the company keeps an identical backup trading desk in the event their main trading desk goes down for whatever reason there to continue providing liquidity to the MBS market.
Did you see Tester and Warner give omuruva a tough time in yesterdays hearing? The spat between brown and Kennedy was priceless.
Do you think such a disparate group will ever find a legislative solution to the gses quagmire?
Do you know why Fannie Mae needs an office at that location?
Earlier this year, Realtor.com estimated the gap between the number of homes needed and the number of homes available at 5.24 million. That estimate in June represented an increase of 1.4 million above the estimated 3.84 million gap in 2019, primarily because residential construction hasn't kept up with household formations.
From January 2012 to June 2021, 12.3 million new American households were formed, but just 7 million new single-family houses were built, according to Realtor.com.
The housing shortage is particularly acute in the more-affordable range. Newly built houses with a median sales price of $300,000 represented just 32 percent of builder sales in the first half of 2021, compared with 43 percent during the first half of 2018, according to Realtor.com. To close the gap between demand and supply, builders would need to double their pace of construction for five or six years, Realtor.com economists estimate.
That shortage contributes to the continued fast pace of sales. A recent report by the Redfin real estate brokerage found that, during the four weeks that ended Oct. 17, one-third of homes in over 400 metro areas went under contract within one week of being listed.
That's a bit more than the 30 percent of homes that sold that fast during the same period last year, and far more than the 20 percent that sold that fast in the same period in 2019, before the pandemic influenced seasonal buying patterns.
More homes came on the market this summer, but demand for homes is still high and listings are still low compared with previous years, according to Redfin. Active listings, which are all homes on the market during a specific period, fell 22 percent in the four weeks that ended Oct. 17 compared with the same period in 2020. Sales were down 40 percent compared with 2019.
The median sales price, according to the Redfin report, jumped 13 percent during the four weeks that ended Oct. 17 compared with that period in 2020, to $355,875. That's a 29 percent increase over the same period in 2019.
Despite the quick pace of sales and rising prices, one indication that the housing market may be returning to slightly more-normal fall conditions is that bidding wars are becoming somewhat less common. Redfin reports that 58.9 percent of offers written in September by its agents faced competition, the lowest percentage in 2021. Bidding wars hit a peak of 74.3 percent in April.
In September, bidding wars were highest in Raleigh, N.C., where 73.9 percent of buyers faced competition, followed by Boston (71.7 percent) and Indianapolis (71.4 percent).
It's a fun area, lived in Hyattsville for a little while growing up as well, Wheaton Plaza, etc. That Ballston area is pretty nice loaded with amenities and lots of young professional people end up there. I'm glad Marymount University finally replaced that ugly blue building on the corner of Glebe Rd. When they rebuilt Ballston mall, the guy who owned a house on the corner refused to sell and they ended up building the 5 level parking garage next to it. He must have eventually sold because the house is gone.
I still own a condo in the Buckingham area near Ballston, these are garden style multifamily homes built during the Great Depression and they built them pretty solid back then. If you go to the management office you can see on the wall the original marketing material from the 1930's (Dad with a pipe and newspaper, mom gardening, kids playing in the open space). A typical family use to live in these units and out of 237 units some are townhouse style, some are 3, 2, and 1 bdrms. It was designated a "historical area" by the county and still provides moderate income housing. In the early 1980's, a developer came in and remodeled all the units and sold them to individuals as a coop form of ownership.
Fannie and Freddie refused to finance the units because one guy, Joe Gardner, bought 87 of the units as rental properties from the developer and the financing of the units were extremely limited to only two lenders and this kept the prices low. Joe eventually agreed to sell some of his units and when the investor ratio to ownership ratio got to a certain level Fannie and Freddie agreed to finance the units and we converted to condo ownership.
THIS CHANGE, FANNIE AND FREDDIE APPROVING THE CONDO WAS AN IMMEDIATE BOOST TO SELLING PRICE AND JUST GOES TO SHOW YOU THE POWER THAT THESE FINANCIAL JUGGERNAUTS HAVE TO CONTRIBUTE TO THE RESIDENTIAL REAL ESTATE MARKET.
"I don't know whether to call you professor or comrade", Senator John Kennedy in the sbc nomination hearing yesterday (the chair Brown interrupted Kennedy and they had a little spat with each other):
Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA): “I don’t know whether to call you professor or comrade.”
— The Recount (@therecount) November 18, 2021
Someone off-camera: “Oh my goodness.”
Dr. Saule Omarova, Biden’s comptroller currency pick: “I’m not a communist. I do not subscribe to that ideology. I could not choose where I was born.” pic.twitter.com/CEiCWNwx2N
The addition of 87,000 irs auditors to raise $400B in alleged unpaid taxes, can't wait to see how the public likes that after the auditors realize that fighting American corporate and rich peoples tax attorneys is a hard and difficult way to collect tax revenue versus intimidating less well heeled middle upper income joe and Jane citizens.
Think about it, even if these IRS agents spend 10% of their time per year communicating with Americans, that's 200 hours * 87,000 = 1.74 million hours or more PER YEAR Americans will have to spend digging up paperwork and consulting with CPAs, accountants, and tax attorneys. Maybe it's time for Guido to hang out his shingle again and help these people from the inevitable upcoming governmental overreach...!
Fantastic and enlightening, thanks! I graduated high school from W&L, used to go to Mario's all the time. Used to work the annual parking lot sale at hecths loading up cars. Remember the putt putt golf course in Ballston? It's like a 15 story Marriott senior living facility. Got my first Chevy from Bob Pecks and did doughnuts in the football fields at the school late at night by McDonald's. Still own a condo over there in Ballston that I rent out! There is a nondescript Mexican restaurant nearby that George bush went to on his first night out post 9/11, I think his dad frequented Whiteys quite a bit. Good times, good times...
I was just watching Judy Woodruff on pbs news hour (fair and balanced my as*) and Lisa Darjanes quoted CBO stated a $337B deficit addition.
Does this kind of thinking ring a bell for anyone? "On top of that, in “Bank, Governance and Systemic Stability: The ‘Golden Share’ Approach,” she recommends a “new golden share mechanism” which would give “the government special, exclusive and nontransferable corporate-governance rights in privately owned enterprises.”
“As a holder of the golden share, the government could have disproportionate voting power with respect to the election of the company’s directors and various strategic decisions,” reads the paper
“This ability to affect directly a private firm’s substantive business decisions — without holding a controlling economic equity stake — is a particularly promising feature of the golden share,” Omarova thinks. Do you?"
https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/577739-bidens-radical-treasury-nominee-in-her-own-words?rl=1
"Saule Omarova is eminently qualified and was nominated for this role given her strong track record on regulation and strong academic credentials," an administration official said in a statement to NPR. "The White House strongly supports this historic nomination."
https://www.npr.org/2021/11/18/1056252505/saule-omarova-occ-treasury-nomination-confirmation-hearing-criticism
The law school for years was a remodeled department store before they finally turned it into the sleek modern school it is today. One other thought about Till, is that as I recollect he donated a farm in Prince William county to GMU but kept some of the adjacent parcels, it has taken decades but they are really going full blast in developing the adjacent parcels. I'm also pretty sure that he and his brother teamed up with quite a few developments with the Lerners.
Till Hazel's family had the last working farm in Arlington (his dad was a surgeon) he was also the head of county zoning in the buildup in the 80's. His family are large contributors to education and medical causes. While I first meet him when I was the student representative on the board at GMU, I saw him and his wife at my son's graduation from a private school that he went to as a boy and now he lives on a farm in Fauquier. I also worked with one of his grandchildren and found out his family has been in the area since the 1700's on the banks of the Potomac and Till's father told him build good infrastructure and education and the jobs will follow. His brother who owns the heavy construction leasing business with the iconic red trucks recently passed away.
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/11/18/saule-omarova-senators-snipe-at-each-other-in-hearing-for-biden-bank-regulator-pick.html
“Taken in their totality, her ideas amount to a socialist manifesto for American financial services,” Toomey said in his opening remarks.
A tense moment came just before 11 a.m. ET, when Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., asked Omarova about her membership in a youth communist group during her childhood in Kazakhstan.
Omarova replied that membership in the communist party was required under the totalitarian government and noted that members of her family were murdered by the communist party led by Joseph Stalin.
Committee Chairman Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, interrupted Kennedy’s line of questioning as personal and irrelevant to her candidacy, a rare move that drew protests from the Republican at the end of his allotted time.
“I’m struggling with what to call her,” Kennedy said. “I don’t know whether to call her ‘Professor’ or ‘Comrade.’”
Those comments were quickly rebuked by Democrats including Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who called such attacks on Omarova “vicious.” Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., added that he is “disturbed” by the personal nature of her criticism.
But Democrats weren’t alone in disavowing the focus on where Omarova was born. Sen. Thom Tillis, Republican of North Carolina, said he has “grave” concerns about her policy positions but has no qualms about her upbringing.
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/11/18/china-evergrande-default-is-highly-likely-sp-says.html
I've got a rental over there in Franklin Farm, I use to commute from there to my job at Fannie Mae at 4000 Wisconsin Avenue. In the morning, I would take the express lanes to Dulles and turn around and avoid all the backed up traffic on 267. MWAA pretty much put an end to that.
Franklin Farm is a sweet little community as well, Mr. Franklin, an Eastern airline pilot in DC won the lottery and bought the 500 acre farm. He sold it to Till Hazel who came in the early 80's to put in the lots and community development for the builders, 20% is open space. I remember when there was a one lane bridge on West Ox and you had to wait to cross. The county had a housing developer profer a new wider bridge. Frying Pan park is the last working farm in the county and as I recall they still sell fresh eggs there.
I'll bet where you are building now in WV will eventually become like it is here, although you and I may be 6 feet under by that point but it seems inevitable.
How are they going to implement a recap and release with all the outstanding litigation? I don't think like MC said, "it can go away", I mean think about all the different Plantiffs that have to come to a consensus. Plus the federal government has been winning on most of the substantive issues in court and federal judges tend to be sympathetic and give leeway to coequal branches of government.
If the BBB fails or gets paired back substantially that could be a catalyst to find ways to fund affordable housing via monetizing their 'investment' in the gses.
But looking at the 2022 scorecard, it looks like they are clearly focusing on using the gses to subsidize affordable housing at the expense of a capital rebuild. I could see government decision makers saying, "Let's see if the shareholder Plaintiffs get anywhere in the courts and in the meantime rebuild capital and increase subsidies as much as we can, EVEN IF IT SLOWS THE CAPITAL REBUILD, after all the SCOTUS just let us act in the best interests of the public it serves."
I hope the government seriously takes steps to exit conservatorship but right now I just don't think it's their main priority.
I think bringing back the salt deduction would be beneficial for American homeowners but CBO is likely to put a damper on the BBB as early as tomorrow, I think, stay tuned.
It's a sweet property, sits on 5 acres, 4500 sf, 2 stall barn, dressage ring, 6 bdrm/5 1/2 bath, in the 70's the county zoned it 5 acres per house to avoid having to incur the costs of sewer and water and it's close enough to downtown DC, I see Clarence's driver taking him to his gubmint job at the ussct. You're welcome to come by anytime.
Great tweet! The problem with either party is that there is hardly any reason for the government to give up 100% control over the gses'. Monetizing their 'investment' and exiting conservatorship seems unlikely given the cloud of pending litigation and building a consensus from high level government decision makers on how to structure a settlement offer with the shareholder Plaintiffs. A cumbersome process at best.
I'd like to see the federal government actually follow the law under HERA and constructively work on their Primary Directive to exit BUT the reality could be subsidized housing mortgages at the expense of delaying release, since it's in the best interests of the public it serves. This would be the preferable outcome for the MBA, NAR, Home Builders, and the endless stream of low income housing advocates.
For politicians from BOTH parties, it boils down to whom should we please more, industry advocates and low income Americans or evil hedge fund guys/mortgage banksters?
Sandra seems to understand the important need for capital building but she may agree to slow it down to satiate all these industry advocates asking for handouts.
She's been very silent on the issue of R&R.
What do you think?
About$11k, if you are in California, don't they have some Proposition 13 or something that freezes your re taxes from escalating? No wonder the income tax is like 8%, what's the sales tax in California?
Just on my primary residence, I pay the county $11k/year. I'll bet the lot you have in WV is less, although over 50% of real estate taxes typically goes to schools.
Which one? Primary residence $1.3m in Virginia, I live in the same hood as Clarence Thomas, saw him at lunch the other day, of course I can't say anything to him about the litigation.
https://www.housingwire.com/articles/fhfa-2022-scorecard-brings-affordability-to-the-fore/
"The scorecard, the FHFA’s mechanism to communicate its annual priorities and expectations for the GSEs, gave equal weight to both equity and affordability, and safety and soundness."
"In its 2022 Scorecard, the conservator also tasked the GSEs with updating their pricing framework to “increase support for core mission borrowers.” Affordable housing advocates have said loan-level price adjustments — risk-based fees for borrowers — increase the cost of homeownership for those who need it the most."
"The 2022 scorecard is a notable departure from the previous year’s, which continued the drumbeat for moving the GSEs out of conservatorship. There was no mention of “equity” or “equitable” in the 2021 scorecard. Its only mention of affordability was in reference to rental housing, not homeownership."
I think the current administration is more concerned about supporting affordable housing than moving the gses out of CONservatorship.
But don't worry our jps friends insure us that the federal government is in the profit maximization business and will "monetize their investment" very soon. We could very well likely see the dissipation of corporate assets in the name of "in the public interest it serves." This could be accomplished mainly through reduced income from loan level pricing adjustments on higher risk loans.
https://www.housingwire.com/articles/housing-starts-disappoint-in-october-falling-by-0-7/
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/11/17/lowes-looks-to-drive-sales-by-helping-baby-boomers-stay-in-their-homes.html
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/11/17/biden-occ-nominee-omarova-set-for-rocky-senate-hearing-as-gop-protests-her-.html
Sherrod Brown is a big fan of this lady:
"While Republicans warn against recommending a candidate whose academic work calls to “end banking as we know it,” she has also faced skepticism from Sen. Jon Tester, a Democrat."
"Her supporters, including Banking Chairman Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, say warnings from the industry and Republicans are misguided, unfairly paint her as anti-bank and fail to acknowledge her decades of experience in banking law.
“More than 70 financial regulatory experts from across the political spectrum, including many former bankers, have endorsed her nomination,” Brown’s opening statement reads. “From growing up in the Soviet Union, to escaping to build a new life here, to enduring this last month of personal attacks with dignity, Ms. Omarova has demonstrated the strength and independence she’ll need to be an be a fair, impartial, and tough Comptroller.”
Given the need for political purposes to satiate the needs of the CA, WA, NJ, MA, and NY, voter base and given the statutory mechanics I don't see Sandra making a decision to tweek the high cost of living areas loan limits, I'm pretty sure it's a low proportion of their book of business to begin with, much to the chagrin of the TBTF banks and Edward Demarco.
A little gse bashing from our friends at the WSJ today?: "Home prices are soaring thanks to inflation and other government policies, so what to do? The Biden Administration's answer is apparently to make homes more affordable for the paupers in Nantucket and Palo Alto by guaranteeing mortgages up to $1 million.
The Journal reported Tuesday that government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are expected to raise their conforming loan limits to about $650,000 from $548,250 and nearly $1 million in "high-cost" markets from $822,375. That's to keep pace with the inflation in housing prices, which were up 23% in the second quarter year-over-year.
Fannie and Freddie guarantee mortgages up to the conforming loan limit. The government backstop was intended to assist low- and middle-income buyers. Now it subsidizes affluent Americans who don't need the help, which contributes to elevated prices, especially in expensive markets.
Even with the surge in housing prices, the median price of an existing U.S. home is only $363,700. Raising the loan limit to $1 million will mainly assist buyers in places like Santa Clara, Potomac, Md., and New York counties where the median home is worth about $1.2 million, according to the National Association of Realtors.
Buyers in these areas are paying more for homes and getting less than in the rest of the country. But blame government zoning and other policies that restrict supply. The solution is for local governments to encourage more housing development, not for the feds to prop up demand for high-end homes.
Well-to-do Americans in high-cost areas can still get a non-federally guaranteed "jumbo" mortgage at ultra-low rates, though they may have to make a bigger down payment. According to Bankrate, the average mortgage rate for a 30-year jumbo loan is 3.05%, roughly the same as a fixed 30-year average mortgage.
The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate is about 150 basis-points lower than a few years ago and half of what it was in 2007. Thank the Federal Reserve, which has maintained real negative interest rates and been buying $40 billion of mortgage-backed securities per month during the pandemic. But what the Fed giveth in lower rates, it taketh in higher home prices that reduce affordability.
Fannie and Freddie are supervised by the Federal Housing Finance Agency, so the conforming loan increase would need its regulatory approval. In September the FHFA also suspended the Trump Administration's portfolio limits on GSE acquisitions of second home and investment property mortgages, providing another subsidy for the affluent.
The number of second homes purchased in September was 53% higher than during the same month in 2019 and 63% higher for investment properties, according to American Enterprise Institute fellow Ed Pinto. Second-home buyers and investors chasing higher yield are competing with upper-middle income Americans, which is pushing up prices even more.
If all of this sounds eerily familiar, it should. In the 2000s federal loan subsidies and low interest rates fed a housing mania that ended in panic and a crash. Taxpayers had to rescue Fannie and Freddie to the tune of $190 billion. Here we go again?"
Don't despair, the "temporary CONservatorsip" has ONLY been going on for 13 years, 2 months, and 8 days.
https://howlongagogo.com/date/2008/september/8
Amerika, my kinda country !
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/11/17/mortgage-refinance-demand-continues-its-freefall-as-interest-rates-rise-again.html
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/11/17/lowes-low-q3-2021-earnings.html
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/new-home-construction-slows-as-builders-grapple-with-supply-chain-headaches-11637157193