Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s Combined Net Worths Climb to $ 154 billion

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Mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac continue to build their assets on strong income and profit, which means that the wish of the Trump to release the companies of the government conservatory.

But incoming Minister of Treasury Scott Bessent said that the Trump government has other priorities for the time being, and that every plan for the privatization of Fannie and Freddie should not lead to consumers paying higher mortgage interest rate.

In the meantime, some experts in the field of home financing warn that the Trump administration can impose restrictions on how much support the mortgage giants can offer to riskier borrors.

Fannie and Freddie were placed in the government conservatory in 2008, because the delinquencies of the mortgage and prevent reasons climbed during the major recession of 2007-09.

The mortgage giants have since taken a long way and reported combined 2024 profit of $ 28.9 billion this week and have helped to increase their total assets to more than $ 150 billion.

Fannie Mae revealed in his Annual report On Friday to investors that it has increased the provisions for credit losses this year by $ 257 million, to $ 752 million, due to fraud or suspected fraud that can influence the performance of multifamily loans it guarantees.

But Fannie’s support provides apartment buildings, good for just a fraction (16 percent) of the $ 29 billion of the company in the turnover of 2024, and the multi -family company remains profitable, some $ 2.5 billion in the net – income generates.

Most of the $ 17 billion of Fannie Mae in the win of 2024 (85 percent) came from the single -family housing activities, which supported $ 326 billion in house mortgages last year. This includes 778,000 purchase loans of a total of $ 270 billion and 204,000 refinancing of a total of $ 56 billion.

“In 2024 we increased our net value to almost $ 95 billion, we continued to build up our regulatory capital and implement our mission,” said Fannie Mae CEO Priscilla Almodovar in a rack. “Our strong results were driven by the income of guarantees, consistent with the transformation of our business model that started more than ten years ago.”

The story was almost the same at Freddie Mac, who in the past also warned investors about possible fraudulent loans in his multifamily business.

The lion’s share (79 percent) of Freddie Macs $ 11.9 billion in 2024 profit Came from his single -family company. Although Fannie Mae traditionally has been the larger company, Freddie Mac surpassed its rival in supporting $ 346 billion in home loans in 2024, including 820,000 purchase mortgages of a total of $ 286 billion and 209,000 refinancing of $ 60 billion.

Freddie Mac takes the lead in the mortgage volume

Source: Fannie Mae And Freddie Mac Income reports.

Fannie and Freddie do not provide loans themselves, but packaging mortgages that meet their standards to the effects (MBS) covered by mortgage that are sold to investors.

MBS Supported by Fannie and Freddie are seen as safe investments by investors, because even as homeowners stop making their payments, the mortgage giants ensure that investors are still being paid.

Jim Whitlinger

“Last year alone, Freddie Mac bought more than 1 million loans from more than 1,000 lenders of all types of size throughout the country,” said Freddie Mac Chief Financial Officer Jim Whitlinger on a call with investment analysts. “We have packaged those loans in effects covered by mortgage, or MBS, who attracted investors from all over the world to support our accommodation.”

Last year, Freddie Mac bought loans for cash and gave MBS from a total of more than $ 411 billion, an increase of 18 percent compared to 2023, and the “revenues enabled Freddie Mac to help buy nearly 1.6 million families , refinancing or rent a house, “said Whitlinger.

The combined net value of mortgage giants is $ 154.3 billion

Source: Fannie Mae And Freddie Mac Income reports.

Since repaying a bailout of $ 191 billion taxpayers, Fannie and Freddie have gradually built up their assets, helped by the decision of the first Trump administration to allow both companies all their income.

Fannie Mae’s assets grew by 22 percent in 2024 to $ 94.7 billion, while Freddie Mac strengthened its assets by 25 percent to $ 59.6 billion.

The federal supervisor of Fannie and Freddie, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, has estimated that the mortgage giants would need a combined minimum of $ 319 billion in adapted total capital to leave a large housing account again.

Fannie and Freddie’s Capital Positions, “are improved compared to 2008, but are not robust enough to prevent a treasury draw in the event of a great loss,” said the FHFAs Annual report at the congress In June.

President Trump started the complex and politically loaded process of privatizing the mortgage giants during his first administration, and his allies were reportedly busy rolling the ball again before he won re -election in November.

Scott Bessent

Last week, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Bloomberg’s Saleha Mohsin, which will expire with Trump’s tax cuts this year and a deadline for debt ceiling looms up in March, releasing Fannie and Freddie van Government curatorship on the back burner.

“At the moment the priority is tax policy,” said Bessent. “As soon as we get through it, we will think about the priority for Fannie and Freddie Release.”

Many Democrats and Republicans agree that Fannie and Freddie no longer have to be in a conservatory. But there are considerable differences about whether mortgage markets should be fully privatized – which can increase mortgage interest – or whether the government should continue to offer a kind of backstop.

The National Association of Realtors and other groups in the real estate sector have argued that the government continues to play a role in secondary mortgage markets. Nar has proposed that Fannie and Freddie can be replaced by a new private entity that is regulated as a public utility.

Bessent said that the most important statistics he looks at before releasing Fannie and Freddie from the conservatory is a study or hint that mortgage interest rates would rise. Everything that is done around a safe and solid release will depend on the effect of the long -term mortgage interest. “

Baseline Conforme Lening limit, 2000-2025

Source: Federal Housing Finance Agency

Rising house prices mean that Fannie and Freddie can buy larger and larger mortgages-the conforming loan limit for single-family homes in most markets is now $ 806,500, and the mortgage giants can now support loans of a maximum of $ 1.2 million in high-quality markets.

But Fannie and Freddie still do about half of their company with first home buyers, because qualifying borrowers can only deposit 3 percent when buying a house (buyers make payments of less than 20 percent, must take out private mortgage insurance at their own expenses ).

Freddie Mac supported purchase mortgages for 426,000 first home buyers in 2024, while Fannie Mae helped 391,000 tenants to become homeowners.

“The affordability of housing is difficult for many consumers,” Almodovar said to a call with investment analysts. “According to our estimates, from 2010 – 2023, the median house prices rose by around 102 percent, but the incomes only increased by around 64 percent.”

Although Fannie Mae has no control over “many of the factors that affect affordability, we are committed to collaborating with our partners in housing to take on this challenge,” said Almodovar, by helping consumers with limited credit history and those confronted are in advance with high costs.

The first Trump administration intended to limit the purchases of “high risk” with a single family loans from Fannie and Freddie to 6 percent of their mortgage volume and 3 percent of the refinancing.

High risk was defined as each mortgage with two of the following three factors: a down payment of less than 10 percent, a debt / income ratio above 45 percent or a credit cone from the lender under 680.

Share in the purchase loans of ‘High Risk’ supported by Fannie and Freddie

The proposed limits for risky loans were withdrawn by the BIDEN administration, and since then the share of purchase loans supported by Fannie and Freddie in 2023 that would have been defined because risky risen above 10 percent in 2023 and 2024, according to an analysis of a Urban Institute.

“Many expect the incoming administration to be considering the caps again on loans with a high risk, second-home and investors, but we think Goodman and John Walsh said in December.

Chryssa Halley

Fannie Mae CFO Chryssa Halley said on Friday that the credit profile of single-family mortgages supported by Fannie Mae remains strong, with average loan value ratios of 50 percent and average credit score in the origin of 753.

During a call with investment analysts, Halley acknowledged that “multiple families credit transactions with fraud or suspected fraud have further increased the risk of default and added to our multi -family loss of credit.”

While Fannie Mae acquired $ 55 billion in multifamilie -loans in 2024, it transferred a part of the credit risk to $ 26 billion of those loans to other companies, and that “essentially all our multi -family book had a form of credit improvement.”

Single -family mortgages supported by Fannie and Freddie

Source: Fannie Mae And Freddie Mac Income reports.

All together told, Fannie and Freddie gave guarantees on $ 6.72 trillion to single-family mortgages at the end of 2024-one figure that remained fairly constant since 2022, when the rising mortgage interest rated the pace of home sales and mortgageoerfinancing.

Together Fannie and Freddie have more than 16,000 employees, the majority in the Washington, DC Metro area.

From January 31, Freddie Mac 8,076 had full -time employees, an increase of 8,004 at the same point in 2023. Fannie Mae reported that it had around 8,200 employees from December 2024, against 8,100 at the end of 2023.

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E -Mail Matt Carter