FHFA Misses Opportunity to Help Housing Market and Taxpayers

WASHINGTON, D.C. – August 1, 2012 – (RealEstateRama) — Restoring the US housing market is critical to our nation’s economic recovery. That is why we are disappointed with the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s (FHFA) announcement today that it will not permit targeted forgiveness of loan principal balances for struggling homeowners. This decision means that principal reductions are not an option for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans even when reducing principal balances would return more money to those entities than any other type of modification. This is a lost opportunity to stabilize housing markets and property values by giving more homeowners a chance to restructure unaffordable loans and avoid foreclosure