Member-only story
REAL ESTATE
What Government Layoffs Could Mean for Your Mortgage
Lots of uncertainty
Since President Donald Trump took office earlier this year, the regulatory agencies that oversee the U.S. mortgage market have been on the chopping block.
The Trump administration has moved quickly to scale back both the size and the scope of the federal government, including ordering layoffs at the (CFPB), the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), which oversees lending giants and Freddie Mac. But neither Trump nor his officials have been specific about their vision for the agencies — leaving mortgage professionals and borrowers to guess about the future of home lending.
“We have record-high policy uncertainty,” says Chris Flanagan, head of U.S. mortgage and structured finance research at .
Supporters of the cuts say that they’ll scale back regulatory overreach in response to the Great Recession of 2007–2009. Critics say Trump threatens to undo needed reforms that protect consumers.
“This is like a bank robber trying to fire the cops and turn off the alarms just before he strolls into the lobby,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat and a key supporter of…
