challenge

http://unitedforhomeownership.com/challenge

challenge

For more than 75 years, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have enabled families to achieve the American dream by helping to lower housing costs and provide better access to home financing.  Since their inception, Fannie and Freddie have collectively provided over $15 trillion of mortgage credit, bringing stability, liquidity, and affordability to the housing market. In fact, over the past five years alone – when the nation needed it most – Freddie Mac provided more than $2.2 trillion to support America’s housing market. This funding helped approximately 11.3 million families buy, refinance or rent a home.

The steady stream of mortgage funding provided by Fannie and Freddie has especially helped Americans who might not otherwise be able to obtain financing for their home, including people of color and families with more limited incomes or wealth. Since 2009, Fannie Mae’s efforts have resulted in more than 1.5 million loan workouts, approximately 345,500 foreclosure alternatives, and more than 1.2 million home retention solutions. 

Challenge

The U.S. housing market has made a remarkable recovery in recent years, but the economy still remains fragile. Any legislative overhaul that seeks to needlessly dismantle Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac threatens the stability of the housing market by limiting the flow of mortgage funding and reducing accessibility to financing options such as the popular 30-year fixed-rate mortgage, the product of choice for nearly 90 percent of today's homebuyers.

The proposed Johnson-Crapo bill would eliminate Fannie and Freddie, establish a massive new government regulator that would put taxpayers back on the hook in the event of an economic crisis, and cede more power to Wall Street’s biggest banks. Numerous financial analysts, including those at Barclays Capital and Moody’s Analytics, estimate that mortgage rates would rise under any plan to overhaul Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were historically considered to be reliable investments for Americans, and Federal regulators repeatedly said so.  However, the proposed Johnson-Crapo bill would create a new mortgage finance system by allowing the government to impose a total loss for all who believed in this promise – including retirees, pension funds, and so many others who devoted hard-earned resources to these companies – and redistribute the proceeds to fund a massive new government regulatory agency and other potential market entrants. 

Solution

Americans deserve a smarter solution. Rather than threaten our recovery with a new and untested federal agency that would arbitrarily pick winners and losers in our housing finance system, Congress should work to help the American economy continue its comeback, strengthen Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and keep America’s housing market in the hands of professionals, not politicians and the big banks.  

As such, United for American Homeownership (UAH) believes that any housing reform must:

• Protect consumers
• Promote responsible lending
• Ensure access to affordable housing
• Support ongoing economic recovery
• Preserve and strengthen Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac; and
• Respect the rights of stakeholders who have supported the two companies.

If you agree, sign the petition below to show your support.