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To: antonia
add a bit more of an explanation for Barney Frank of how none of what Fannie Mae, Freddy Mac, or the Feds have done has helped make housing more affordable

Exactly! As the Fed study showed, Fanny and Freddy didn’t fulfill their mission of providing affordable housing. Fan/Fred/The Fed created very cheap money. As we know, too much money chasing too few goods causes upward price momentum that looks like it will continue in that direction. This invites speculation, miscalculation of risks, and the inevitable bubble.

This bubble has propelled house prices to stratospheric levels causing housing to be far less affordable and causing people to optimistically over-leverage themselves, become ever more creative in their financing (e.g. 50 year, interest-only, nothing down, low-doc loans - sheesh!). The median cost of a home nearly doubled in the last decade, while savings is down and household debt is up. Meanwhile, total compensation has been increasing at about 3% per year - not nearly enough to keep pace with the artificial, self-inflicted housing bubble.

21 posted on 09/23/2008 3:07:56 PM PDT by uncommonsense
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To: uncommonsense
Jeepers! in Fannie Mae's very first sentence, on their official web page, describing their mission, they lie like a bad rug!

"Fannie Mae provides stability, liquidity, and affordability to the nation's housing finance system under all economic conditions. We exist to expand affordable housing and bring global capital to local communities in order to serve the U.S. housing market. "

22 posted on 09/23/2008 3:25:52 PM PDT by antonia ("Be the person your dog thinks you are....")
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