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Housing Wire: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Now Appear To Be Here To Stay. How Exactly Did That Happen?

Housing Wire, October 3, 2019: Fannie Mae And Freddie Mac Now Appear To Be Here To Stay. How Exactly Did That Happen?

When the federal government announced earlier this week that it would allow Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to rebuild a portion of their capital reserves to a total of $45 billion combined as part of a plan to exit conservatorship, the message was clear: The government-sponsored enterprises are back and they’re not likely to go away any time soon.

It’s a dramatic reversal from where things stood just a few years ago, when the prevailing sentiment in Washington, D.C. was how to get rid of the GSEs, once and for all.

In fact, there were numerous Congressional efforts that would have seen the GSEs wound down within five years.

And, if one of those bills had passed in 2015 (as was certainly a possibility), the GSEs likely would be in their last year of existence as we speak.

Instead, the GSEs appear primed to exit conservatorship on stable footing with healthy financial backing and reformed operations. So, how exactly did we get here?

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