Acting Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency Edward DeMarco released preliminary findings from an FHFA analysis earlier this week, and stated, “principal reductions done under large incentive payments from the Treasury Department would save Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac enough money to begin an umbrella write-down program,” – up to $1.7 billion.
Despite this, DeMarco stressed that strategic defaults could quickly erase any benefit. When looking at 700,000 borrowers, it’s predicted that Freddie and Fannie could lose $63.7 billion if the loans aren’t modified. “With the tripled incentive payments to reduce principal under HAMP, the losses would be $53.7 billion if some principal is forgiven.” Reducing the principal would save the GSE’s $1.7 billion, at a cost of $2.1 billion to taxpayers for the program.
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