The alarm bells are now ringing for the Federal Housing Administration, with delinquencies increasing.  The immediate and pressing issue is the safety and soundness of FHA today and the risk it poses to the taxpayer.  

Whether Fannie Mae’s accounting reflected a deliberate violation of the rules—as the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight contends—or a difference of opinion among accountants—as Fannie argues—has become a matter of considerable importance and could be the determining factor in whether Fannie's current management retain their positions. Moreover, there is...

Reform focused on sustainable lending would have FHA target a projected average claim rate of 5 per 100 insured loans under normal circumstances and 10 per 100 insured loans under stress circumstances.  This rate is about five times the normal default level for prime loans and about half the FHA's traditional default level under normal circumstances.

The housing market is in straits, and many members of Congress are looking to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to step in and help. But the two government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) have troubles of their own. Freddie Mac announced a substantial quarterly loss in late November, following Fannie’s somewhat smaller loss...

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In just a few months, Jim Lockhart, the new director of the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO), has shown himself to be a nonpartisan administrator, a quick study, and a practical man. Since taking office, he...

After numerous academic and other studies showed that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were not doing as much as banks to provide affordable and low income housing--a function that the GSEs describe as part of their "mission"--in April the Department of Housing and Urban Development proposed draft regulations that would...

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could be privatized, and minor changes in regulation could lead to a mortgage financing system that produces lower rates without government backing.

Government-backed lenders could be a bigger problem than the savings and loan crisis.