A panel for Freddie Mac is seen in their campus at the company’s head office on October 9, 2024 in Tysons Corner, Virginia.
Kevin Dietsch | Getty images
The newly confirmed director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Bill Pulte, who oversees the mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, said that he would not lower the compliant loan limit, nor the maximum value for the loans that the two companies will buy and guarantee.
This limit is calculated each year according to the current prices of houses. It now amounts to $ 806,500, an increase of $ 39,950 (or 5.2%) from 2024.
“It is not planned to do anything with regard to the compliant loan limit,” said Pulte on Tuesday.
The Trump administration praised plans to reduce the federal government, and many expected to reduce the size of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Mortgage giants guarantee the vast majority of the mortgage market of 12 billions of dollars in the country.
“Relatives see a reduction in the limits of loan soothing irritated populists that the government provides mortgages of $ 1 million, when in reality there is a capital supply of banks and non-banks to support this activity,” said Eric Hagen, Managing Director and Mortgage Financing Analyst at BTIG. “The question is how many mortgage rates for jumbo borrowers may need to increase to support it, which could all be very sensitive to calendar and interest rates.”
The FHFA supervised the two companies since they went to the supervision in 2008. With the recent appointment of Pulte, questions turned on what he intends to do with both, especially if he wanted to reduce their compliant loan limits. Pulte visited the offices of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac last week, publishing a video of empty offices, offices and even cafeteria on social networks.
In a recent report, the Cato Institute, a Washington -based reflection group, based in DC, pushed the idea that the congress should limit the FHA’s unified insurance portfolio to new house buyers.
“In addition, the FHA should reduce the value of the loan limits eligible for Fha’s unified mortgage insurance to (at most) the first quartile of the prices of the houses,” said the report.