Social Security, Equity, Processing Tools; Freddie and Fannie Shifts; Release From Conservatorship Slim

“Rob, what do you hear about Fannie & Freddie being released from conservatorship?” Not much. Although it may change with one random tweet, the idea & process of jettisoning them is not even “on the back burner”… It may be back in the refrigerator. Maybe 2031? Both are certainly building up their net worth, but they don’t have enough capital to be released based on the amount of capital required under an Administrative Rule. The U.S. Government doesn’t want to lose control, or the income, and MBS traders and investors don’t want to lose the government guarantee. Scott Bessent has said, a number of times, that he doesn’t want to do anything to raise mortgage rates. It’s also important to distinguish “release from conservatorship” from what Pulte has oft- tweeted/teased: that the government may sell off a portion of the shares it controls and capture some of the value of the GSEs but still control them from an ownership (and in-conservatorship) standpoint. Perhaps we’ll see some immediate affordability relief by changes in loan level price adjustment, gfee, or MIP changes. Maybe the government should take a hard look at homeowner’s insurance, permit fees, condo fees, utility hookup fees… (Today’s podcast can be found here and this week’s ‘casts are sponsored by RelCu. RelCu is the all-in-one agentic platform driving conversion, retention, and cross-sell across mortgage and deposits. Today’s features an interview with Relcu’s Abhi Thakur on how to improve decision-making, streamline consumer data management and engagement, and where tech needs to respect legacy knowledge of mortgage operations.)