But speculation has gathered pace this year that Fannie and Freddie’s days under government conservatorship are numbered – and mortgage lawyer Marty Green (pictured), principal at Polunsky Beitel Green, told MPA he viewed developments at Fannie this year as a step towards nudging the GSE back into the private space.
Future terminations, he suggested, “will likely be the result of the elimination of programs deemed to be too woke or DEI-related to be continued. Some staff will leave of their own accord and won’t be replaced, and others will be released for a failure to embrace sufficiently the administration’s future vision of the GSEs.
“I would anticipate that, with the reduced staff at whatever level that turns out to be, the GSEs will likely be less focused on expanding credit to borrowers at the lower end of the credit spectrum and more focused on its core mission of ensuring liquidity in the mortgage market. I think the administration views this refocus by the GSEs as an important step toward exiting conservatorship because it will be better aligned with privatization.”
Selma Hepp of Cotality, warned that US mortgage rates could rise if China decides to offload US Treasuries. The Trump administration’s temporary tariff pause fails to ease the uncertainty surrounding the mortgage market amidst ongoing trade tensions.https://t.co/ZiujoutWP8
— Mortgage Professional America Magazine (@MPAMagazineUS) April 11, 2025
Will the Trump administration push ahead with ending conservatorship?
The first Trump administration set the scene for a possible end to Fannie and Freddie’s conservatorship, which began in 2008 as a global financial meltdown unfolded.
Mark Calabria, who served as FHFA director between 2019 and 2021, took steps to end that government control of the GSEs by introducing rules to bolster their capital requirements and allow them to retain earnings instead of sweeping profits to the US Treasury.
