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Strategies & Market Trends : The Residential Real Estate Crash Index -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Paul Kern who wrote (51930)	4/12/2006 9:22:30 AM
From: Ramsey Su	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 306849

Paul, it is about time that you get that formatted correctly. <gggggg> What is worth noting in that data is the difference in loan amounts between a fixed rate vs an ARM. It that telling us FRM vs ARM are no longer choices but rather necessities that consumers are confronted with these days? Ramsey

To: Paul Kern who wrote (51930)	4/12/2006 9:59:58 AM
From: Paul Kern	Respond to of 306849

By Damian Paletta Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--The top post at the federal agency that regulates Fannie Mae (FNM) and Freddie Mac (FRE) appears to be the job in Washington that nobody wants to take. Vacant since May, the White House has reportedly approached multiple people about stepping in as director of the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight but hasn't found much interest. "I haven't heard a word about the Ofheo job, other than the fact that nobody really wants it," said Camden Fine, president of Independent Community Bankers of America. The name most recently floated to fill in the position, James B. Lockhart, deputy commissioner of the Social Security Administration, is reportedly no longer interested. A spokesman for the Social Security Administration did not return a phone call for comment. Others have expressed similar feelings about the post. "I tried to make it pretty clear even before (leaving the Treasury Department) that it was not the kind of job I would be interested in," said Wayne Abernathy, a former Treasury Department assistant secretary who left the agency last year to become an executive director at the American Bankers Association. "Its portfolio is a lot narrower than where my areas of interest lie." Some officials previously mentioned as candidates are Edward DeMarco, the Social Security Administration's assistant deputy commissioner for policy; Brian Montgomery, assistant secretary for housing at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development; Federal Reserve Board Governor Kevin Warsh; and Fed economist Wayne Passmore. Ofheo's deputy director, Stephen A. Blumenthal, became the agency's acting director in May after former director Armando Falcon resigned. A presidentially appointed director must be approved by the Senate and is assigned a five-year term. This has not been a quiet time for the agency. It is preparing to release its special examination into Fannie Mae's accounting and management problems, arguably the largest undertaking the agency has ever conducted. Ofheo officials, including Blumenthal, are reportedly working seven days a week on the report. The report is expected to be tied to a larger settlement for improper accounting than the $125 million Freddie Mac worked out with Ofheo in December 2003. The report is also expected to be tougher than one released last month by former Sen. Warren Rudman. That exam, requested by Fannie's board, found pervasive accounting problems at the company but assigned no culpability to the board of directors. One of the main reasons people are reluctant to take the Ofheo job is because of pending legislation, said several people following the process. "Here's a job that could easily disappear if the House and Senate decide to pass this act," said Alex Pollock, a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. "It might not look like that great a deal. It's easy to understand given the situation with the legislation. Just look at the natural logic of it, it wouldn't be that easy to find a director." Lawmakers have been working for the last several years to create a new regulator for Fannie and Freddie that would also have oversight of the 12 Federal Home Loan Banks. Despite years of negotiations, bills in the House and Senate still differ on some major issues. A version passed by the House last year would create affordable housing funds at both GSEs and allow a new regulator to limit portfolios at the government-sponsored enterprises to ensure Fannie and Freddie's safety and soundness. Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., passed a bill through the Senate Banking Committee that would put even stricter limits on the GSEs' portfolios. His bill won support from both the Fed and the White House. Though a compromise has not been reached, lawmakers have not applied pressure on the White House to fill the Ofheo post. "From Sen. Shelby's perspective, it's up to the discretion of the administration" to decide when to appoint a new Ofheo director, a spokesman said. "We still are trying to move forward with our Senate bill. Sen. Shelby remains hopeful that we will be able to move the bill through the full Senate this year." A White House spokesman did not return a phone call for comment on this story. Ofheo was created in 1992 as part of the regulatory reorganization following the savings and loan crisis. It was chartered with a $10.7 million budget and its staff was capped at 45 employees. These numbers have grown only in recent years. Now, Ofheo has 227 employees and works on a $60 million budget. Even though Ofheo is considered an independent arm of HUD, it is subject to outside criticism. Its budget must be approved by Congress each year, and it has traditionally found many critics on Capitol Hill that either defend the GSEs or argue that Ofheo does not have enough power to oversee Fannie and Freddie. These factors could also scare away potential nominees, Abernathy said. "Both the administration and Congress have spent several years saying what a terrible agency that is, not because of its staff, but because of its authority," he said. "People are wondering, 'When I go to that job, what's the tenure?' Who wants to take on the job to head an agency that everyone wants to eliminate?" Still, the situation is expected to clear up in the coming months as the prospects for legislation crystalize. "If Congress does not pass legislation this year, then the White House will probably begin to focus on that job slot again," Fine said. -By Damian Paletta, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-9241; Damian.Paletta@dowjones.com (END) Dow Jones Newswires 04-12-06 0957ET