Hello, LOs!
The country's top housing regulator, Federal Housing Finance Agency Acting Director Sandra Thompson, made it through a relatively tame nomination hearing before the Senate Banking Committee last week.
The hearing was a departure from recent history. If you recall, last year, members of the committee grilled Julia Gordon, Biden's nominee to lead the Federal Housing Administration, for now-deleted tweets critical of the police. Gordon's nomination has still not come up for a vote.
Things are different for Thompson, who not only has bipartisan support, but buy-in from affordable housing advocates and industry stakeholders.
It may help that she is already in her role. When lawmakers asked her what she plans to do to tackle housing affordability, she pointed to actions the GSEs have already taken to sustainably increase access to credit. She specifically highlighted Fannie Mae factoring in rental payment history.
Democratic Sen. Jon Tester, from Montana, asked Thompson how she planned to close the racial homeownership gap. In response, she teased the details of the GSEs' forthcoming equitable housing finance plans, which were due to be implemented Jan. 1. An FHFA spokesperson declined to provide a timeline for the plans' implementation.
The FHFA is still looking over the plans, Thompson said. The regulator highlighted appraisal bias and education as two areas of focus in Fannie and Freddie's plans.
"Some [parts] focus on education, making sure opportunities are available for people to understand what the homeownership process is and how it works," Thompson said. "Then, if there are other issues, like appraisals, that come into play, and bias that may or may not exist. We want to make sure the enterprises are focused on identifying and addressing barriers to close the racial homeownership gap."
Given how influential the GSEs are in shaping the mortgage market, I found her response a little underwhelming. What do you think? Send a note to gkromrei@housingwire.com
Georgia Kromrei
Senior Mortgage Reporter, HousingWire
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