Freddie Mac

Yeah.

So we've done billions of dollars of loans with a variety of different lenders, whether it's a bank, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, HUD, life insurance companies.

And so I will say that if I were to boil HUD down into something real small, it's difficult process, amazing outcome.

That's how we describe HUD.

Meaning that the HUD penalty could turn out to be zero in terms of getting a shovel in the ground if you sync it up.

And then all of a sudden, you've gotten all of those benefits we talked about a moment ago without delaying your start.

On a refinance, similarly, you know, it takes a little bit longer than if you go to Frannie Mae, Freddie Mac, or your local banker, but...

If you just start the process an extra 45 days early, you can close at the exact same time.

USA Today profiled Lisset Ramos.

She's 31, lives in Virginia, holds a degree from the University of Michigan, used to work at Freddie Mac, but she lost her job in layoffs and has been looking for work for a year.

Her daily routine is just a masterclass in modern economic exhaustion.

Seriously.

Many years ago, the appraisals began to go on to form reports, and they were generally provided by or created by Fannie Mae.

Fannie Mae is a large GSE along with Freddie Mac, the sibling.

And they buy, I'm guessing, $20, $25 trillion worth of mortgages a year.

So it's a pretty significant operation.

In January of 2021...

The 30-year mortgage rate hit 2.65, which was the lowest number Freddie Mac has ever recorded since it started tracking this in 1971.

If you have one of those mortgages, hold on tight.

And now cheap money does something very specific.

So you would think that that would correlate to an even higher rate, but yet while rates are high, being around 7.5%, 7.4, whatever it is today that you're experiencing, it is a It's not anywhere near as bad as it would have been if those mortgage spreads would have been higher.

And some of that is in part thanks to the buying that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is doing with mortgage-backed securities, which that means you're improving the price of mortgage-backed securities relative to the 10-year treasury.

So that reduces the spread.

And then look, it's no... secret.

So I just want just to give you a rounded picture.

Thank you for the context on that question.

And next one, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, conservatorship or privatization?

I think it would be a good thing to go private, but who knows? That's certainly out of my realm of being able to kind of put a handicap on.

So FICO recently has been a lot of volatility because...

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, I think, accept something else now or something.

So, Barry, what are your thoughts on this? It's a kind of government, right? So, I know that the company has been charging a lot of money for it.

So, should we be investing here aggressively? And Meta, there's a lot of turmoil.

Adding to the pressure, the recent surge in mortgage rates is making the decision to buy a home even more difficult for many, deepening affordability challenges.

The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate was 7.32% last week, according to data released Thursday by Freddie Mac.

That's a significant jump from this time last year, when the average 30-year mortgage rate was 6.27%.

When the midterm elections just weeks away, rising mortgage rates are adding fresh pressure to an already strained housing market at a time when affordability issues are a key concern for many voters.

And if you ever want to know exactly what these different data points represent, you can click on the little file next to it.

And the file will tell you that this is the purchase price of homes with mortgages backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

So the good news is that the prices have been going up.

It was 0.2.