A sign for Freddie Mac is seen at their corporate headquarters campus on Oct. 9, 2024 in Tysons Corner, Virginia.
Kevin Dietsch | Getty Images
The newly confirmed director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Bill Pulte, who now oversees mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, said he will not lower the conforming loan limit, or the maximum value for the loans the two firms will buy and guarantee.
That limit is calculated each year according to current home prices. It now stands at $806,500, an increase of $39,950 (or 5.2%) from 2024.
“There are no plans to do anything as it relates to the conforming loan limit,” Pulte said Tuesday.
The Trump administration has touted plans to reduce the federal government, and many have expected it will work to shrink the size of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The mortgage giants guarantee the vast majority of the nation’s $12 trillion mortgage market.
The FHFA has overseen the two since they went into conservatorship in 2008. With the recent appointment of Pulte, questions have been swirling about what he intends to do with two, including if he would move to lower their conforming loan limits. Pulte toured Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac offices last week, posting on social media a video of empty offices, desks and even the cafeteria.
In a recent report, the CATO Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, pushed the idea that Congress should limit the FHA’s single-family insurance portfolio to first-time homebuyers.
“Additionally, the FHA should decrease the value of loan limits eligible for FHA single-family mortgage insurance to (at most) the first quartile of home prices,” the report said.
