Above, MBA’s Laura Escobar speaks with FHFA Director Bill Pulte at the Mortgage Banker Association’s Secondary and Capital Markets Conference in New York City Monday. Photo by Clarissa Garza.
NEW YORK CITY—During the Mortgage Banker Association’s (MBA) Secondary and Capital Markets Conference, Bill Pulte, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), emphasized how much potential there is to uncover savings through cuts at the two GSEs, going so far as to compare it to DOGE.
“These institutional bureaucracies have been created and it’s almost impossible to get to the bottom, and there’s so many layers to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac,” Pulte said. “In many ways, we’re trying to do our own DOGE effort. We welcome Elon’s help—and I don’t think he’ll be needed—but, you know.”
Referencing “a lot of criminal stuff,” including mortgage fraud and “people thinking they’re above the law” at the GSEs, Pulte said his agency found “foreign nationals of North Korea and China embedded in the companies” with employees allegedly “faking American credentials” to gain inside access, claims he’s previously made in interviews.
Pulte said he will continue sharing updates on what the agency is uncovering as well as new orders, hinting that there might be a press conference this week to highlight the agency’s savings.
Moving on to the hot topic of GSE conservatorship, Pulte said he is “very aligned and meets regularly” with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent—who said the end of GSE conservatorship primarily depends on the effect on mortgage rates. Ultimately, Pulte said, the decision to release Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will fall on the president.
“This is a decision for the president of the United States, and we have a president who is a deal maker…and I believe that whatever way the decision goes, with regard to what the president wants us to do, I believe will be done—you know, in the best interest of the American people, but ultimately that will be the boss’s decision.”
The first goal for the “bloated, overweight and obese” GSE’s, Pulte said, is to get “the bloated enterprise on the treadmill, get it running efficiently.”
“An efficient and well-run Fannie and Freddie is a safe and sound mortgage market, and that includes making sure that we’re lending to people who can afford it. It includes prosecuting mortgage fraud, which we just launched a big fraud division,” he said. I think these businesses are going to be safer and stronger than ever before, and I think their earning potential is going to go up. You know, a lot of people say that these businesses are worth a certain amount; I think they’re worth way more than what some people are saying.”
Whether the GSEs are “backed up or not backed up,” Pulte said other countries are looking at these “great American icons,” referring to his meetings with the South Koreans and the Saudis.
Addressing the housing supply issue—which New York Fed President John C. Williams touched on earlier at the conference—with existing homes locked in at low rates, Pulte said inflation is key to solving this “big difference” between the current mortgage rate and the rate “people would actually trade their homes at.”
Underscoring the last four years and “how much inflation hurt the housing market” during that time, Pulte said a large focus is to unlock existing supply while also encouraging new housing supply.
No matter what political side one leans on, Pulte said we all need to “hope that (Trump) is very successful with his inflation fight.”
“I’m very optimistic for the housing market, and I’m very optimistic about the economy, and I’m very optimistic about the president,” Pulte added.
He further emphasized his optimism by recalling his meeting with Scott Turner, the secretary of Housing and Urban Development, and a CEO of “one of the largest mortgage companies.” During this conversation, Pulte claimed the CEO said it was “a breath of fresh air,” and that he’s “never sat with the Federal Housing director and the Secretary of HUD.”