A government-sponsored enterprise oversight agency floated a new strategic plan on Wednesday that includes an emphasis on the supply side of the housing market in one portion of three overarching goals.
US Federal Housing will be collecting comments through Nov. 5 on the new plan for its operations, two GSEs it oversees that are in conservatorship, and the Federal Home Loan Banks. (USFH is the new branding the Federal Housing Finance Agency uses.)
The portion of the plan that calls for the conservatorship entities to “support efforts to expand housing supply to meet national demand” may draw particular attention given President Trump’s recent directive for them to get homebuilders to produce more low-cost units.
FHFA Director Bill Pulte also has indicated in posts on social media platform X that he will be asking “relevant market participants” to disclose the loans related to big builders in mortgage sales to the two GSEs, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Low-income housing tax credits also are positioned as part of the supply-side goals.
The strategic plan also adds “anti-fraud related reporting and information sharing,” something they have begun emphasizing through a Fannie partnership with Palantir, and which has seeded some legal actions against high-profile figures at odds with President Trump.
Efficiency measures that extend to regulation in line with broader Trump administration efforts are part of the plan as is technology modernization at the oversight agency itself. Technology aims include governance of artificial intelligence and other data, resiliency and cybersecurity.
Goals related to affordable housing requirements that are part of the GSEs’ mission, safety and soundness also are part of the strategic plan, as are actions that protect taxpayers.
The Trump administration has been considering a new stock offering related to the GSEs with an eye toward seeing if there is a way to potentially monetize them to taxpayers benefit.
Pulte advises investors to read up on risk factors
Pulte recently emphasized the need for current Fannie and Freddie shareholders to review standard warnings.
In separate X posts, he directed anyone interested in investing in each of the large government-related mortgage buyers to “please read the full risk sections” in their respective 10-K Securities and Exchange Commission filings.
While reviewing risk factors is standard, stock traders have been watching social media comments from Pulte, and the new offering has drawn the attention of individual investors who may not be experienced.
Shares of smaller GSE Freddie Mac fell from around $11 to $9 at one point early this week, but then they bounced back to $10 per share before settling down at a lower but more stable level. Freddie’s stock closed the trading day at $9.56 per share.
Fannie Mae’s stock dropped from $12 to $10 per share earlier, and initially rebounded to $11 before stabilizing at lower levels. It closed the trading day at a level just below $10 per share.
Both GSEs shares remain near their 52-week highs. Freddie’s is around $15 per share and Fannie’s is roughly $16. Both are up considerably from year ago levels just over $1 per share.
GSE risk factors enumerated in voluminous filings include their status as entities held in government conservatorship since the Great Financial Crisis and uncertainty about their future. Typical mortgage liquidity, operations, compliance, credit and market risks also are mentioned.
Fed MBS policy’s implications for Fannie and Freddie
“Changes in the fiscal and monetary policies of the Federal Reserve, including changes in target interest rates and in the amount of agency MBS,” also are mentioned among numerous risk factors.
The Fed’s holdings of agency mortgage-backed securities have been in the spotlight as Chairman Jerome Powell said Tuesday he wished he’d curtailed pandemic MBS purchases earlier and said that he does plan on ending current runoff at an unspecified time.
One thing Powell said he currently has no plans for is to take steps related to the MBS portfolio aimed at improving housing affordability by buying the bonds in order to lower rates.
(Powell has been at odds with the Trump administration for being slow to back lower short-term rates that might help lower home financing costs, until recently. The MBS portfolio is even more closely correlated with the long-term rates most mortgages have.)
“We look at overall inflation and not — we don’t look at, we don’t target housing prices,” Powell said, adding later. “We would certainly not engage in mortgage-backed security purchases as a way of addressing mortgage rates.”
The statement seemed to be at odds with the Fed’s pandemic MBS purchases that did lower rates under Powell’s watch, albeit as a form of broader relief. Some commentators said it was more a reflection of his current policy view.
Jake Krimmel, an economist at Realtor.com, said he saw the statement as “consistent” with Powell’s current “narrow” take on Fed’s role, which is to look to stabilize employment and inflation broadly; and his status as an independent policymaker.
“Powell does not view high mortgage rates as a problem for monetary policy to solve right now, especially when homeowners are sitting on record levels of home equity and inflation risks,” Krimmel said in a report on his company’s website.
Due to an ongoing government shutdown, Powell and other monetary policymakers lost access to one key employment measure recently, but the Bureau of Labor Statistics called back staff to produce the next inflation report. The Fed and GSEs are not directly affected by the shutdown.
