Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are teetering on the edge. For many, this has become an opportunity to pontificate about the evils of government-sponsored enterprises. However, I can’t quite get on the bandwagon.
The existence of the F.M. entities allowed The Redhead and I to become homeowners and then become second home owners. No one would have looked at us – crawling up to the doorway of the mortgage lender, clutching barely enough bills to cover closing costs – and decided we were a legit risk if it hadn’t been for Fannie Mae sitting there, ready to buy our mortgage contract and sell it to rich speculators. Banks don’t take those kinds of risks with depositors’ money, but they’d do it with Wall Street’s.
We knew the game was nearly up when we bought our second house two years ago and found the lenders all too willing to finance the astronomic price. They even acted like we were in the driver’s seat, slavishly lopping off fees at our demand. By this time, of course, The Cancer of retail lending began corrupting the commission-hungry underwriters, and Fannie was still buying these monsterous deals without question.
While our case may have been a tight, but good, risk (we’re still paying our mortgage on time, after all), many of the loans Fannie ate weren’t. It’s not surprising to see the The Cancer eating them now, after it chewed through Bear Steans, Countrywide and IndyMac. But, I’m afraid the chemo necessary for this recovering will kill off opportunity for many of my younger friends.
