The two government-created creatures to spur home ownership have turned into the largest homeowners in the U.S. of A. according to the New York Times. The GSEs combined portfolios were close to 164,000 at the end of March, a quarter where the entities took ownership of a home every 90 seconds.
“Our business is the American dream of home ownership,” Fannie Mae declared in its mission statement, and in 2001 the company set a target of helping to create six million new homeowners by 2014. Now Fannie is spending $10 million a month just to mow its lawns.
The taxpayers have propped up the two GSEs to the tune of $146 billion, the stocks of the entities were just de-listed from the NYSE and are now selling for pennies, but back in the day a few on Capitol Hill were defending Fannie CEO Franklin Raines and his “outstanding leadership.” Raines told congress that mortgage loans were “riskless.”
