Rates Holding Ground, But Under Pressure; Will New FHFA Head Follow his Instincts or Bow to Reality?

Rates Holding Ground, But Under Pressure; Will New FHFA Head Follow his Instincts or Bow to Reality?

"The most important question in housing policy heading into the new year has nothing to do with interest rates, housing supply, or home sales," Urban Institute (UI) non-resident fellow Jim Parrott says. "It's what kind of director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Mark Calabria will be ." Calabria has been named to replace Melvin Watt as director of the agency that regulates the Federal home Loan Banks and the GSEs Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. FHFA has also been conservator of the GSEs since 2008. Parrott says the agency has "an enormous hand in who in this country can get a mortgage and on what terms ." He adds, "And in Mark Calabria, the Trump administration has nominated one of Fannie and Freddie's greatest skeptics, raising the prospect that they, and the market that depends on