In a speech this week before the annual secondary market conference of the Mortgage Bankers Association, FHFA Director Mark Calabria sounded a little bit like the Mark Calabria of the Cato Institute.
The new transaction will offer LIHTC lenders an additional source of liquidity in a tight market. A San Francisco transaction tests the waters to see if the new security floats.
Economists at the National Association of Realtors prefer a public utility model for the GSEs; FHFA director touts the multi-guarantor approach. The trade group uses an appearance by Calabria as an opportunity to highlight the differences.
Affordable housing expert heads back to the private sector. Industry observers wait to see if this is the beginning of a wave as Freddie CEO Donald Layton retires.
The new FHFA director tells Realtors what he will and won’t do for GSE reform. The keys: more capital, more competition, more transparency. The problem: The agency can’t do it all on its own.
The regulator continues its hiring spree, plundering liberally from other departments. We hear Craig Phillips, Treasury’s point man on housing-finance reform, is available.