Donald Trump said he will make a decision in the near future about taking Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac public, a move which he said he is giving “very serious consideration”.
In a post on Truth Social, the US president said he will speak with the treasury secretary, Scott Bessent; the commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick; and the federal housing finance director, William Pulte, about doing so.
He added: “Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are doing very well, throwing off a lot of CASH, and the time would seem to be right. Stay tuned!”
These two companies are the backbone of the US housing market. Together they support about 70% of US mortgages.
Fannie and Freddie, which operate as for-profit corporations with private shareholders, were created by the US Congress to expand the national home lending market by buying home loans from private lenders and repackaging them as mortgage-backed securities.
When the housing market collapsed in 2008, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac suffered overwhelming losses. To avoid catastrophic effects for the US economy, they were placed in conservatorship under the newly created Federal Housing Finance Agency.
Gary LaBarbera, president of the Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York and member of the Housing for US coalition, on Wednesday called on Trump to invest the expected $250bn in proceeds from the sale of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into middle-income housing, after the president announced he’s moving forward to release the government-sponsored enterprises from conservatorship.
“President Trump is right to free Fannie and Freddie. But even better, let’s use the proceeds – some $250bn – to build middle-class housing for American workers by American workers. Housing for US stands ready to work with President Trump to make it happen.”
Previous attempts to rid government control of the organizations, including under Trump’s first term in office, were unsuccessful.
In February, Bessent said the release of Fannie and Freddie from their conservatorship would depend on mortgage rate implications.
“The priority for a Fannie and Freddie release, the most important metric that I’m looking at, is any study or hint that mortgage rates would go up,” Bessent said in an interview with Bloomberg.
Reuters contributed reporting
