Next week’s housing finance forum is sure to be closely watched, and surely the model for home financing will change.
Of course, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae will be the center of attention during the conference. The goal behind the conference is to gather input from industry stakeholders that will guide the Administration’s decisions in forming the new housing finance system. Ideas for what to do with Freddie and Fannie range from putting the mortgage market in the hands of private lenders to turning them into official government agencies. So, who’s invited to this meeting of the minds? The “father of the mortgage-backed securities market” Lewis Ranieri, Co-CIO of PIMCO Bill Gross, which runs the world’s largest mutual fund, Barbara Desoer, president of Bank of America Home Loans, Mike Heid, co-president of Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, among others. Also on the guest list are representatives from the National Urban League, the MacArthur Foundation, the nonprofit Center for Financial Services Innovation, and the American Enterprise Institute think tank, and two university professors.
