Both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are nationally recognized, federally backed mortgage institutions committed to providing the U.S. housing market with liquidity, stability and affordability. This mission for both government-sponsored enterprises, or GSEs, is crucial to the nation’s housing finance system. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac both compete on the secondary mortgage market as mortgage investors. They serve mortgage markets and provide liquidity to mortgage lenders by purchasing mortgages from lenders and then repackaging those mortgages into mortgage-backed securities for sale to investors on the secondary mortgage market. Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae’s practice of purchasing mortgage loans is beneficial to mortgage markets for two main reasons. First, purchases made by each enterprise help ensure that home buyers and investors who purchase property have a steady and stable supply of mortgage money. If the banks and non-bank lenders that originate mortgages were not able to sell them to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, they would not be able to continue to write loans. Second, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac expand the pool of funds available for housing by attracting new secondary mortgage market investors through offering packaged mortgage-backed securities and guaranteeing the timely payment of principal and interest on the underlying mortgages. This makes secondary mortgage markets more liquid and lowers interest rates paid by mortgage borrowers. Though both enterprises are better known by their nicknames, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have more official titles: Fannie Mae is the Federal National Mortgage Association (FNMA) and Freddie Mac is the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (FMCC).Functions
Allows New Loans To Be Written
Benefits The Secondary Mortgage Market
Histories
Fannie Mae
Fannie Mae was created in 1939 to combat the lack of affordable housing during the Great Depression. It helped provide continuous and steady funding for housing and introduced a new type of mortgage to the market: the long-term, fixed-rate loan with an option to refinance at any time.
In 1954, Fannie Mae adopted a private-public mixed ownership hybrid structure, under the Federal National Mortgage Association Charter Act.
For years, Fannie Mae was the primary buyer and seller of federally backed mortgages in the country until it was privatized by the U.S. government in 1968, making it a shareholder-owned company funded entirely with private capital. Two years after this, Fannie Mae was approved to buy conventional mortgages in addition to Federal Housing Administration (FHA) and Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) loans.
Fannie Mae also became even less popular in 1970 when Congress created Freddie Mac to compete with Fannie Mae.
Freddie Mac
Freddie Mac was created under the Emergency Home Finance Act with the purpose of expanding the secondary mortgage marketand reducing interest rate risk for banks.
In 1989, Freddie Mac evolved into a shareholder-owned company as part of the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act.
By playing a key role in the mortgage markets, both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have experience causing and responding to recent national crises.
The Subprime Mortgage Crisis And The Housing Market Crash Of 2008
The expansion of Fannie Mae’s and Freddie Mac’s mission led to the subprime mortgage crisis and significantly contributed to the 2008 financial crisis. The subprime mortgage crisis, which occurred between 2007 and 2010, was triggered by a major decline in home prices after the collapse of the housing bubble.
To resolve this issue, which resulted in numerous foreclosures, mortgage delinquencies and devaluations of housing-related securities, both GSEs were approved to receive bailout funds from the government to help stabilize the economy.
Ever since the enterprises took on this debt, they were put in conservatorship and held by the Federal Housing Finance Agency, who also created a preferred stock plan to take back control of the GSEs.
Both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac saved the housing market crash. By 2009, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and FHLB financed 90% of new mortgages. This number was more than double their market share before the 2008 crisis.
Fannie And Freddie And COVID-19
Many homeowners impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic struggled to keep up with their mortgage and rent payments. One way the government hoped to alleviate fear was through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.
The mortgage relief and foreclosure provisions of the CARES Act offered protections for homeowners with mortgages backed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac.
The foreclosure moratorium included in the CARES Act expired on July 31, 2021 and the CARES Act provisions stopped when the National Emergency Declation ended on April 10,2023.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac rolled out flexibilities and COVID-19-specific loss mitigation options to assist clients negatively impacted by the pandemic, including pandemic-related forbearances, modifications, and deferrals.
