That's because the federal government has stripped over $300B from the twins and they don't have anything left to raid! It looks like the federal government is ready to put $200B to $300B in housing (if these new bills pass) to address what has been a 10+ year shortage of building exacerbated by the pendulum of residential mortgage underwriting going from extremely lax in the early 2000's to very prudent.

If housing prices and builders profits keep rising, builders will supply more housing.

How hot is the housing market? Another article from the WSJ: "The Housing Market Is Crazier Than It's Been Since 2006; Limited inventory, low interest rates and bidding wars are driving prices sky-high. 'It's just taken a little bit of the joy out of the process.'"

From todays WSJ: "Lending standards are unlikely to expand meaningfully until housing demand ebbs, economists said. The dearth of homes for sale means lenders can select only the best from an abundance of applications.

Still, credit requirements should loosen slightly this year as interest rates rise, drying up refinancings, said Mike Fratantoni, the MBA's chief economist.

"Since lenders aren't being flooded with calls to refinance, more of their resources can be used to reach out to first-time buyers for purchases," Mr. Fratantoni said.

Refinance loans are expected to make up 46% of the mortgage market in 2021, down from 59% in 2020, according to the MBA."

https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2021/04/01/housing-costs-prove-challenging-for-many-older-millennials.html

Thanks for the kind words! This is the latest working its way through the Congress on housing:

https://www.portman.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/portman-klobuchar-introduce-bipartisan-legislation-address-nationwide

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna1262907

Take it easy, no one's going anywhere until the nws ends!

As I recall, the daily trading volume was like close to 50 million shares, that was around September 2019, I think. Recall in the 5th Circuit EnBanc ruling we survived the government Motion to Dismiss and the case was remanded to the trial court to have a trial on the merits! Given what we know now about the governments horrible conduct here through years of hard fought discovery, the governments precarious position will be exposed at trial! I think David Thompson wisely decided to cut off any possibility of government appeals by filing a Writ of Certerrori to the Supreme Court, in essence moving the chess pieces in place for a checkmate!

Relax, once the federal government ends their expropriation and begins returning the entities back to its owners, the common shareholders will vote for who they want to fill 6 of the 9 Board of Directors seats (as 3 are appointed by the POTUS pursuant to their charter).

I think Bill Ackman owns more than 5% of the common and if Tim P. manages Cap Wealth mutual funds that hold more than 5% common I think he and Bill can vote themselves in. BB may or may not own common (although I think he was on the Board of Directors at Sears), Tim Howard declared he had some jps left over from his long tenure as cfo, but said fairly recently that he may or may not trade here.

WHATEVER they own, they will have to disclose it and be transparent if they EVEN want to be on the Board.

The bigger point is that we need people other than these Governmental pawns to be in charge of the Board of Directors and represent the best interests of the common shareholders!

I think there are approximately 9 Board of Directors and as I recall pre 08, 3 are installed by the POTUS, pursuant to their charter. Getting a shareholder voted Board of Directors will be a critical step to ending the conservatorship.

If they do eventually install a Board of Directors to represent the private shareholders, I would think Tim P., Bill Ackman, Bruce Berkowitz, and Tim Howard would be a good start.

Latest from ROLG on Collins Plaintiffs reply letter to AG's letter at SCOTUS: "in essence, Collins plaintiffs agree that the case is not moot, but rebut the acting SG’s claim that substantial capital reserves are being built insofar as this increase in retained capital is offset by a corresponding increase in the Treasury senior preferred stock preference amount."

Good points! I don't know how Uncle Sugar can attract new investor money with a government installed Board of Directors do you?

Michigan had a spike in cases in Detroit, Lansing and some other big cities, hope you are doing well!

I just got my 2nd shot on Wednesday and I stopped by the Krispy Kreme for my free doughnut! Ummmmm, free doughnut! Had I been in Michigan I could have gotten a free doobie, heehee! What a country!

Well it's a big case and I am pretty sure Kagan and probably Breyer and Sotomayor will dissent. Not likely a 9-0 decision and it will likely have an impact on the other cases. Multi billion dollar litigation just takes some time, but given what the extremely reluctant defendants were forced to divulge in Discovery, David Thompson and the other Plaintiffs attorneys are close to finally closing the circle of escape for the defendants and I remain optimistic about a positive outcome for the Collins, et. al Plaintiffs!

That's right, why not take care of the low hanging fruit first, that is near agreement cases. Collins is the culmination of two separate Certerrori grants with 4 questions as I recall. The Collins case decision will have implications in many of the other cases percolating up the Federal Courts. Something like overruling Humphreys Executor, would be "yuge", and could have significant impacts on how federal agencies are structured for the next 100 years!

Also, if they are considering bulldozing HERA, they will need to answer the question, how would that impact the secondary Mortgage Market, if at all.

They certainly take the impact of their rulings into consideration, that's why they came up with the"Severability Doctrine" so they can pretend to go back in their time machine and ask the US Congress what they would want to do, get back in their time machine and say, "this is what the US CONGRESS WOULD HAVE WANTED, in essence, REWRITING THE STATUTES! Where does that end, scary! But the alternative in Seila Law was to jettison the Dodd Frank Act and that certainly would have been"yuge". This same issue is at issue with the ACA in California v Texas!


So I hate to say it but the more time this takes, the more I can scoop up at these prices!

Nice! Given the governments virtually unlimited resources and refusal to take ANY responsibility for their bad acts, this truly is a story of David v Goliath!

No "R", and they release opinions written by the Justice with the lowest seniority 1st, this opinion was by ACB...

“While a lack of inventory and rising prices continue to limit opportunities for homeownership – especially for younger Americans and minority populations – policies that support nationwide housing affordability are now more important than ever,” said Charlie Oppler, President of the National Association of Realtors."

https://www.housingwire.com/articles/cfpb-reverses-pandemic-flexibilities-vowing-enforcement/

https://www.housingwire.com/articles/what-bidens-infrastructure-plan-does-for-housing/

I don't think so either, how many Libertarians has JB put in to lead federal agencys? ZERO! DJT could have felt possibly throwing him under the bus was not as important as taking another shot for a possible overruling of Humphreys Executor (that would be a feather in the cap for the Federalist Society!) and increasing his power at some possible future time.

I was thinking today a late June ruling from the SCOTUS would probably please the conservative leaning majority SIMPLY BECAUSE JB DURING JUSTICE THOMAS' PUBLIC LYNCHING (REMEMBER ANITA HILL?) PUT THE CONTENTIOUS USSCT SENATE CONFIRMATION PROCESS IN MOTION THAT MCCONNELL VOWED TO CARRY ON IF HE WAS EVER HEAD OF THE SENATE MAJORITY.

The Senate Confirmation of USSCT Justices used to be very civil, but when JB decided to turn it into a chance to assinate their characters and try to dig up ANY possibility of a human beings imperfect life and turn it into a media circus to somehow score political points and embarrass them, well even ACB (who has lived an extremely saintly life) found the whole Senate Confirmation process unpleasant and tacky and we all remember what happened with Kavanaugh.

So my point is, why not wait until late June to let JB have the ability to fire MC at will?

Whether that's even a factor of when they decide to rule seems far fetched but after several of the Justices had to unnecessarily go through such uncivilized Senate Confirmation Hearings it wouldn't surprise me that they may like to throw him this bone later versus sooner.

Given that the Executive Branch: (1) INTENDED TO NATIONALIZE THE GSES FROM THE BEGINNING WITHOUT HAVING THE UNPLEASANT SIDE EFFECTS OF PUTTING TRILLIONS OF MBS ON THE GOVERNMENTS BALANCE SHEET
(2) HAVE TWISTED AND BROKEN THE LAW OF CONSERVATORSHIP TO MAKE IT PERPETUAL AND THE ANTITHESIS OF PRESERVE AND CONSERVE

It wouldn't surprise me AT ALL if the SCOTUS bulldozes HERA and gives the corporations BACK to their original owners or assigns a court appointed conservator to carry out this now long overdue necessity!

What seems likely is they will : (1) REWRITE HERA so MC is fireable at will by the POTUS
(2) Find the nws in violation of the APA and provide the remedy which the Collins Plantiffs seek

Justice Kagan is a "yuge" fan of the 4th Branch of Gubmint and will likely write some type of dissent joined probably by Breyer and Sotomayor.

Probably won't be until May or June, BUT YOU NEVER KNOW, THAT'S WHY I KEPT BUYING BOTH ALL DAY!

Good luck to all and let's see if the SCOTUS finally drives a stake through the heart of this unfortunate governmental fiasco!

It's absolutely amazing how MC changed his views 180 degrees since CATO! He's cowtowing to JB so he can keep his cushy overpaid job and increase the headcount that he lords over at FHFA by 20%/year, ALL PAID FOR BY THE TWINS! Remember under DJT how he wanted to jettison the "Green Bonds" the twins found active markets for! NOW he's like climate change is a major priority!

https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2021/03/31/pending-home-sales-fell-over-10percent-in-february.html

I mean these financial Juggernauts ain't going away, let's see if the SCOTUS will enforce the rule of law and give the Collins Plaintiffs, et. al, a meaningful remedy!

Latest from MC (I wonder if he's finished "Another Big Lie", yet):

FHFA Director Mark Calabria's Statement at the Financial Stability Oversight Council Principals Meeting on March 31, 2021
Public Remarks as Prepared for Delivery
Dr. Mark A. Calabria
Director, Federal Housing Finance Agency

FINANCIAL STABILITY OVERSIGHT COUNCIL
PRINCIPALS MEETING?
Wednesday, March 31, 2021


Thank you, Madam Chair. And I want to welcome all of the Council’s new members.

FHFA has recognized that our mortgage finance system may be exposed to climate and natural disaster risk. As a safety and soundness regulator, FHFA is actively working to ensure we are accounting for these risks in our prudential supervision of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Federal Home Loan Banks.

FHFA has already developed a strong framework for our regulated entities to respond to the impacts of natural disasters on borrowers and renters. That work served as the foundation for many of the Agency’s COVID relief policies. These successful disaster responses positioned FHFA to look forward.

We are now focused on strengthening our capabilities to identify and assess the current and future exposure of our regulated entities to climate and natural disaster risk. And we are exploring ways to potentially enhance our supervisory and regulatory approach.

In January 2020, FHFA established a new Division of Research and Statistics to build out our data and analytical capabilities. Last fall, DRS brought together many leading climate risk experts and researchers at its biannual economic research summit. And DRS will soon be welcoming two environmental economists to the team.

In November, the Agency finalized a regulatory capital framework for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that recognizes that the risks that climate change could pose are difficult to quantify but potentially material. Loss-absorbing capital, particularly in the form of common equity, is the strongest protection for financial institutions against any negative shock, including those from natural disasters or abrupt repricing. FHFA’s first priority is thus building capital at the Enterprises.

FHFA and Treasury have cooperated in amending their agreements to allow Fannie and Freddie to retain earnings as one means of building capital, with Treasury requiring provisions to protect its investment. These are important steps toward building the capital that can better protect the mortgage finance system against climate change.

The Enterprises will also need to raise private capital to realistically become safe and sound. FHFA looks forward to working with Treasury and addressing its priorities in structuring its investment going forward such that the Enterprises can reach a safe level of capital.

To help coordinate FHFA’s many efforts on climate and natural disaster risk, last year we established an Agency-wide working group made up of representatives from every major office and division.

And this year, FHFA released a Request for Input, and held a public listening session, on climate and natural disaster risk management at the regulated entities. The RFI requested information on a range of topics, including disproportionate impact on low-income and minority communities, closing important data gaps, and enhancing FHFA’s supervision and regulation.

Since this is a public session, before I close, I strongly encourage anyone with relevant information, including the agencies represented here today, to submit a written response to the RFI by the deadline of April 19.

Madam Chair and fellow members of the Council, I look forward to continuing to work with you on these and future matters. Thank you.

Contacts:
?Raffi Williams Raffi.Williams@FHFA.gov / Adam Russell Adam.Russell@FHFA.gov

Kinda of boring news compared to today's price action, but Fannie released monthly numbers for February 2021:

• Fannie Mae's Guaranty Book of Business increased at a compound annualized rate of 6.5% in February.
• The Conventional Single-Family Serious Delinquency Rate decreased 4 basis points to 2.76% in February.
• The Multifamily Serious Delinquency Rate decreased 12 basis points to 0.84% in February.
• As of February 28, 2021, 3.0% and 2.8% of our Single-Family Conventional Book of Business based on
unpaid principal balance and loan count, respectively, was in active forbearance, the vast majority of which
were related to COVID-19; 10% of these loans in forbearance (based on loan count) were current.
• As of February 28, 2021, 0.2% of our Multifamily Guaranty Book of Business based on unpaid principal
balance was in an active forbearance, the vast majority of which were related to COVID-19.
• In February 2021, Fannie Mae issued resecuritizations that were backed by $11.5 billion in Freddie Mac
securities.
• As of February 28, 2021, Fannie Mae's maximum exposure to Freddie Mac collateral that was included in
outstanding Fannie Mae resecuritizations was $149.0 billion.

https://www.fanniemae.com/about-us/investor-relations/monthly-summary

FHFA House Price Index Up 1.0 Percent in January; Up 12.0 Percent from Last Year
?Washington, D.C. – House prices rose nationwide in January, up 1.0 percent from the previous month, according to the latest Federal Housing Finance Agency House Price Index (FHFA HPI®). House prices rose 12.0 percent from January 2020 to January 2021. The previously reported 1.1 percent price change for December 2020 was revised upward to 1.2 percent.

For the nine census divisions, seasonally adjusted monthly house price changes from December 2020 to January 2021 ranged from -0.2 percent in the East South Central division to +1.5 percent in the Mountain division. The 12-month changes ranged from +10.2 percent in the West South Central division to +14.8 percent in the Mountain division.

“While house prices experienced historic growth rates in 2020 and into the new year, the monthly gains appear to be moderating" said Dr. Lynn Fisher, FHFA's Deputy Director of the Division of Research and Statistics. “House prices increased by 1.0 percent in January, which is relatively still high, but represents the smallest month-over-month gain since June 2020."

The FHFA HPI is the nation's only collection of public, freely available house price indexes that measure changes in single-family home values based on data from all 50 states and over 400 American cities that extend back to the mid-1970s. The FHFA HPI incorporates tens of millions of home sales and offers insights about house price fluctuations at the national, census division, state, metro area, county, ZIP code, and census tract levels. FHFA uses a fully transparent methodology based upon a weighted, repeat-sales statistical technique to analyze house price transaction data.

FHFA releases HPI data and reports on a quarterly and monthly basis. The flagship FHFA HPI uses seasonally adjusted, purchase-only data from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Additional indexes use other data including refinances, FHA mortgages, and real property records. All the indexes, including their historic values, and information about future HPI release dates are available on FHFA's website: https://www.fhfa.gov/HPI.

FHFA will release its next HPI report on April 27, 2021 with monthly data through February 2021.

I hear you and it is horrible the way the shareholders have been treated by the federal government for over 12.5 years now.

No, I agree that SM could have easily ended this governmental fiasco when MC was confirmed by the Senate to be the accountable to NOONE Director of the FHFA but didn't. Truth is BOTH parties for over 12.5 years have worked on Nationalizing the gses.

What I pointed out to Trunk is that the new Judge who is replacing the retired Judge Sweeney, after getting his law degree from the University of Chicago Law School (Milton Friedmans home base) and clerking for Judge Smith in the 5th Circuit and working for a blue chip law firm purposefully went to work for a nonprofit advocacy organization whose mission and vision is the following:

"ABOUT ATTORNEYS AND STAFF CONTACT
About
What We Are About:

Cause of Action Institute creates positive social change with pivotal administrative and judicial victories. These achievements create new standards that change the playing field not only for its clients, but for free society, opportunity, and economic liberty as a whole.

Vision

VISION – A society in which liberty and opportunity are protected by ensuring a fair, accountable, limited, and transparent government.

Mission

MISSION – To enhance individual and economic liberty, we work to limit the power of the administrative state to make decisions that are contrary to freedom and prosperity by advocating for a transparent and accountable government free from waste, fraud, abuse, and cronyism."

I am quite sure that Biden would NEVER have nominated him (or someone who advocates for controls on governmental power) to replace the retiring Judge Sweeney.

I think he will DEFINITELY UNDERSTAND how da gubmint has misbehaved here, check out his bio and the nonprofit advocacy group he worked for (did I mention that he was Trump appointed!):

http://www.uscfc.uscourts.gov/stephen-s-schwartz

https://causeofaction.org/about/

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_S._Schwartz

"As of yet, nobody has seen Lady Justice stick her head out from behind the curtain so we're not really sure she is there."

Really, did you even bother to read the 16 Judge 5th Circuit EnBanc Ruling? (Don't they have reading time at the nursing home?)

What were the holdings by the Majority there?

Why don't you ask the person who is in charge of changing your Depends, exactly what this means:

"Twelve of the Fifth Circuit's sixteen en banc judges held that (1) the Shareholders' statutory claim can proceed on remand and (2) FHFA's novel structure is unconstitutional. By a 9-7 vote, a different en banc majority held that the only remedy available for the constitutional claim was to sever HERA's for-cause removal provision and for that reason rejected the Shareholders' pleas that the Court set aside the FHFA-Treasury deal at issue. If you break it all down, four of the judges in the majority on the remedies issue (a decisive number on that issue) dissented from the separate majority opinion regarding the constitutional issue.

The opinions are well-worth reading in full."

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.admin.law/collins-v-mnuchin-938-f-3d-553-5th-cir-september-6-2019/amp/

Don't be so sure of yourself to discount the idea that the 9 Justices haven't already figured out that the governments definition of a "temporary conservatorship" is to have 100% control of these private entities into perpetuity and will refuse to give up their Nationalization goals.

They know about the bulldozer and how to use it.

The evidence seen in Discovery SO FAR (by the way, remember the tremendous resistance of the government to allow the Plaintiffs to EVEN GET IT, "Executive Privilege", etc.!) is enough to convince the trier of fact that the governments intent was NOT to follow HERA and from what I understand the government IS accountable when they blatantly break the law.

I could easily see the SCOTUS providing the remedy the Collins Plaintiffs seek by ruling that the Conservators nws was ultra vires and in violation of the Administrative Procedures Act.

Understandably the shareholders are upset and somewhat befuddled by the lack of a quick resolution from the courts, but if any court is well positioned it IS the SCOTUS in the Collins case.

Think about how since the very beginning of the Conservatorship the government has expropriated the private shareholders interests for their own political and financial support. Hank Paulson started it by strong arming the Board of Directors along with Ben Bernanke, Obama used it to bypass Congressional appropriations with the nws, SM continued the perpetual conservatorship with the LP increases!

It looks like Navy has been right all along, it will take the courts to remedy this blatant overreach of Governmental Power and the SCOTUS could do so next Thursday or before July 1st.

For us it would be great to see the decision on April 1st, but the fact is there are approximately 12 other cases that haven't been decided yet that had oral arguments heard prior to Collins. The markets are closed on Good Friday! The Collins case has been in the SCOTUS inbox for almost a year and a half and Seila Law had a similar issue. That said, you can see that we are not the only ones to have been agreived by governmental overreach and the Justices have to be well prepared to hear and ultimately decide all these other Americans greivances against the Government! Stay long and strong, and remember that the legal proceedings are designed to narrow down the issues prior to the trial, and via Discovery Documents we now know just how precarious the Government's Position is.

The perpetual conservatorship by the federal government of two profitable PRIVATE corporations is the poster child of why an unaccountable 4th Branch of government is NOT what the founders of the US GOVERNMENT wanted to see happen and is precisely what the Seperation of Powers Doctrine is designed to protect.

We know from Seila Law that Justices Thomas and Gorsuch believe that Humphreys Executor needs to be overruled, but will Alito, Kavanaugh, Roberts, or Barrett join them?

We also know that Justice Kagan through her academic work as a Harvard Law Professor is a staunch defender of the 4th Branch of government and was joined by Breyer, Sotomayor, and Ginsburg in her dissent in Seila Law.

Although it's abhorrent to have the Judicial Branch REWRITE LEGISLATION TO WHAT THEY THINK THE US CONGRESS WOULD HAVE WANTED, I think here the Justices will get out their correction tape and REWRITE HERA to allow POTUS to fire MC at will, simply because the alternative would be to strike down the entire Act, unless the Majority opinion can ideologically differentiate HERA from Seila Laws Dodd Frank Act and the California v Texas, Affordable Care Act.

We'll see what happens!

My pleasure and thank you for your contributions as well!

Possibly, but sounds like it could reflect the thinking at the CZARS HQ, FHFA!

I remember TH from when I worked there between 1988 and 1993, "the salad days" (he had a mustache back then!) as I recall the portfolio was JUST beginning and the headcount of FTE was only 2,100!

If anyone wants to know almost ANYTHING ABOUT THE GSES, THEY SHOULD ASK TIM!

I listened to the Tim Palagria interview again this morning. I thought it was great he sent all 9 Justices a copy of The Big Lie! Tim P. has one of the most thorough understandings of the political and legal issue involved here!

Keep the faith and stay long and strong, I believe that Justice and the rule of law will prevail in the end!

https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1021-tennessee-star-report-30051702/episode/03-23-21-tn-star-report-hr-3-80047981/?keyid%5B0%5D=Tennessee%20Star%20Report&keyid%5B1%5D=03-23-21%20TN%20Star%20Report%20HR%203&sc=podcast_widget

From the WSJ: "FANNIE MAE AND Freddie Mac will continue to charge a fee on homeowners who refinance their mortgages through at least Dec. 1, according to officials at the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which oversees the government-controlled mortgage companies.

Fannie and Freddie began charging the fee late last year to help recoup the costs of their response to the pandemic, including billions of dollars they set aside against possible loan losses. The 0.5% surcharge on refinanced home loans adds an estimated $1,400 to the average mortgage guaranteed by Fannie and Freddie.

FHFA officials said they should have clearer data by early October on whether the fee, which is designed to raise approximately $5 billion, will achieve its goals and can be phased out in December."

Tim Howards Amicus Brief us pretty enlightening if you haven't had a chance to read it yet:

https://www.supremecourt.gov/search.aspx?filename=/docket/docketfiles/html/public/19-422.html

THE GOVERNMENT FIGURED OUT THAT THE VEHICLE TO NATIONALIZE TWO PRIVATE CORPORATIONS IS THROUGH AN UNACCOUNTABLE 4TH BRANCH OF GOVERNMENT!

That's EXACTLY what happened here! I think the SCOTUS has figured this out, let's see if they can deliver a meaningful remedy for the Collins, et. al Plaintiffs.