Fannie Mae last week announced that it would begin marketing its 10th sale of reperforming loans. Citigroup Global Markets will handle the marketing.

A working paper released by the National Association of Realtors at a conference in Washington, DC, this month makes a persuasive case that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac should be restructured as strictly regulated, shareholder-owned utilities. Perhaps more important, the paper establishes an effective format for evaluating other proposals for GSE reform.

Despite a slow fourth quarter, 2018 turned out to be the most profitable year since 2013 for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. And, although only a fraction of the size of the GSEs’ single-family business, multifamily remained a bright spot. [Includes one data chart.]

Mel Watt violated ethics rules as director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency by attempting to “coerce” a senior manager into a relationship by suggesting he could help her in getting an executive post, according to a just-released report from the agency’s inspector general.

In his testimony before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs last week, Mark Calabria, President Trump’s nominee to head the Federal Housing Finance Agency, reinforced expectations that, as director, he would begin the long-awaited recapitalization of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

California-based Sabal Capital Partners, one of the earliest partners in Freddie Mac’s Small Balance Loan Program, broke a record this month when it sold the enterprise a portfolio of 39 small-balance loans worth $189 million. All the underlying properties are in East Harlem.

Fannie Mae stepped up its efforts to increase the supply of affordable housing, announcing earlier this week that it was increasing the loan limit for multifamily small mortgage loans from $3 million to $6 million.

Freddie Mac announced late last month that it had closed a deal with RBC Capital Markets to create a $180 million low-income housing tax credit fund. The fund, Freddie’s fourth LIHTC deal since re-entering the market last year after a decade’s absence, has already made several investments.

Freddie Mac last week announced that Sara Mathew has been elected non-executive chair of the company’s board of directors. Mathew, who currently chairs the board’s audit committee, will replace Christopher Lynch, who’s term-limited out after 10 years on the board, six of them as chair.

After a year and a half of following its carefully scripted plan to normalize its balance sheet and return to good, old-fashioned monetary policy, the Federal Reserve muddied the waters at last week’s meeting of the Federal Open Markets Committee.