Biden’s FHFA nominee Sandra Thompson has made it clear that the agency can’t end the conservatorships without help from the Departments of Treasury and Justice and, most importantly, Congress itself.

In April, Fannie and Freddie will begin charging sharply higher LLPAs on second-home and high-balance mortgages. The change is likely to expand non-agency securitizations at the expense of Fannie and Freddie.

The GSEs will have to find ways to better serve the rural housing, manufactured housing and affordable housing preservation markets.

Multifamily caps have kept Fannie and Freddie from expanding their footprint in the apartment market, which grew by 25% in 2021 and is expected to expand by as much as 11% this year.

Don Layton believes the new 2022 loan limits will cause home prices to increase even more, but the politicization of the housing-finance system makes it unlikely FHFA will be able to do anything about it.

Mike Calhoun, CEO of the Center for Responsible Lending, was once thought to be Biden’s choice to run FHFA. Last week, he added his voice to the chorus of endorsements for Sandra Thompson’s nomination.

The new goals don’t deviate dramatically from what the agency proposed in August, but the mulitfamily goals will only apply to 2022 instead of the usual three-year time span.

Appraisers frequently use free-form text fields in their valuation reports to describe neighborhoods in ways that appear to violate fair lending regulations.

Only 16 examiners have completed the agency’s examiner commissioning program since it was founded in 2013.

The agency believes enforcing fair housing laws is central to its role as regulator of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.