What about HUD?

Ben Carson (Credit: Getty Images)
Ben Carson (Credit: Getty Images)

From the New York February issue: With still no clear signal on housing policy, Donald Trump’s early cabinet appointments bring more questions than answers when it comes to the future of the Federal Housing Administration, Department of Housing and Urban Development, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

“We gotta get Fannie and Freddie out of government ownership,” Steven Mnuchin, Trump’s Treasury secretary pick, declared on Fox Business on Nov. 30. “It makes no sense that these are owned by the government and have been controlled by the government for as long as they have.”

Sign Up for the undefined Newsletter

Shares of the two entities that own or insure trillions of dollars in residential mortgage-backed securities, as well as more than $200 billion in securitized multifamily loans, shot up a combined 45 percent before the day’s closing bell. Investors took Mnuchin’s cues to mean that the government- sponsored enterprises and their profits would soon be unleashed. [More]