Policy Issues

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Real Estate Roundtable President and CEO Jeff DeBoer on September 9 wrote to the leadership of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs regarding reform of the nation’s house finance system.  

The committee held a hearing September 10 on “Housing Finance Reform: Next Steps.”  The witnesses included: The Honorable Steven T. Mnuchin, Secretary, U.S. Department of the Treasury; The Honorable Benjamin S. Carson, M.D., Secretary, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development; and The Honorable Mark A. Calabria, Ph.D., Director, Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA).  Watch the hearing’s video and download testimony here. 

The Roundtable letter notes the Treasury Department’s constructive proposal for both legislative and administrative reforms to the government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs), Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and urges both Treasury and the FHFA to work with Congress to end conservatorship through comprehensive, bipartisan, legislative reforms.   

The letter also emphasizes that care must be taken to appropriately calibrate any restrictions on multifamily lending to avoid any unintended consequences to aggregate credit capacity – particularly in times of economic distress. 

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