Steady growth in retained earnings means Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac now have a large pile of interest-free capital to invest.

Affordable housing advocates may be overestimating the challenges first-time homebuyers face in the current housing market.

FHFA may push Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to increase LLPAs on mission-adjacent loans to drive more loan sales to the private market.

Regulators and lenders will have to figure out how to comply with non-discrimination laws without resorting to the use of DEI.

FHFA must turn conservatorship directives into regulations before releasing the GSEs from conservatorship, according to former agency director Mark Calabria. But an explicit guarantee is unnecessary, he said.

The Trump administration’s failure to name acting directors for key federal agencies leaves them either under the control of Biden appointees or without a presidentially appointed leader.

The Section 199A deduction for pass-through entities is set to expire at the end of this year. The Mortgage Bankers Association is pushing for an extension, which appears likely. The question is how Congress will pay for massive tax breaks.

Bill Pulte, Trump’s choice to run the FHFA, is a scion of a homebuilding industry giant, but his background is mostly in private equity and philanthropy.

The Trump administration will likely take starkly different positions on housing and the mortgage market compared with the Biden administration. Expect changes at the GSEs, while a reduction to FHA mortgage insurance premiums looks unlikely.

Republicans, who have long opposed the bi-merge credit scoring model, now control Congress. That, combined with Trump’s “regulatory freeze,” could spell the end of this part of credit report reform.