FHFA to Overhaul Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac?

FHFA changing the game

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) aims to set goals for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that would target borrowers with lower incomes (at or below 80% of the area’s median, down from 100%) and give the agencies increased flexibility in measuring success. These goals would disallow them from buying home equity loans and Wall Street’s mortgage securities to prevent hazardous expansions to meet the FHFA requirements.

“FHFA does not intend for the enterprises to undertake uneconomic or high-risk activities in support of the goals, nor does it intend for the enterprises’ state of conservatorship to be a justification for withdrawing support from these market segments,” the FHFA said in a statement.

It seems like ever since Uncle Sam stepped into the scene to run Fannie and Freddie, everyone’s chomping at the bit to be a part of how it is run, take Barney Frank’s call for abolishing the agencies in lieu of whatever new agency he dreams up. HUD has vowed to step things up as have other organizations but we have to wonder, with HAMP being such a colossal failure, how much more “overhaul” can our system handle?