U.S. Mortgage Finance Overhaul May Create New Winners, Losers
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The Obama administration’s proposal for reducing the government’s role in housing finance may pit Wall Street against real estate groups as it restructures the $11 trillion mortgage market.
The report released yesterday by Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner offers three options for attracting private capital back into housing finance while shrinking the role played by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored enterprises that have been sustained by U.S. aid since September 2008. The debate over the options may create new sets of winners and losers, according to stakeholders on both sides of the issue.