The NAHB leaders also expressed their concern over a growing momentum on Capitol Hill to consider a series of regulatory changes that could diminish the ability of the GSEs to provide housing financing at the lowest possible cost. And they stressed that it is important for NAHB to be “at the table” when this package of changes is considered.
In late breaking news on these issues, Standard & Poor’s, the only debt rating agency that had expressed doubt about the potential impacts of provisions to allow a regulator full authority to place Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac into receivership, last week reversed itself on the likely impact of such a change on the GSEs’ credit ratings.
Speaking at an American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research forum examining whether receivership powers are necessary for Fannie Mae’s and Freddie Mac’s regulator, S&P executive Michael DeStefano said that his agency “wouldn’t have any credit problem with establishing a receivership.”
However, DeStefano also added that the likelihood of any government takeover of the GSEs in the future is extremely remote.
“From a practical perspective, the notion that a GSE would be liquidated by anybody under any circumstance would be so remote that I think it would be hard for us or for capital market participants to take that seriously as a real option.”
For further information, e-mail Michael Strauss, or call him at 800-368-5242 x8252.
Photos by Herman Farrer
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