Bigger. Better. Bolder. Inman Connect is heading to San Diego. Join thousands of real estate pros, connect with the power of the Inman Community, and gain insights from hundreds of leading minds shaping the industry. If you’re ready to grow your business and invest in yourself, this is where you need to be. Go BIG in San Diego!
Homebuilder scion Bill Pulte has appointed himself the chairman of the board of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in a shakeup Monday in which 14 board members were removed from their positions.
In addition to Pulte, Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) staffer Christopher Stanley, a protege of Elon Musk, was named to Fannie Mae’s board.
TAKE THE INMAN INTEL INDEX SURVEY FOR MARCH
Less than a week after being confirmed by the Senate to lead Fannie and Freddie’s federal regulator, Pulte — the grandson of PulteGroup Inc. founder William J. Pulte — has launched a campaign he says is focused on making homebuying more affordable by cutting alleged wasteful spending at the mortgage giants.
After promising last week on the social media platform X to “Make Mortgages Great Again,” Pulte on Sunday posted that he had “spent the weekend speaking with some great leaders at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.”
Bill Pulte | Credit: X
While “there are some really great people inside of these businesses,” Pulte said that “for the last [four] years, costs of owning and operating and buying a home have just been miserable. We are working very hard to make buying and owning a home more affordable.”
Pulte appeared on Fox News Monday, claiming that only 49 out of 2,900 workers at a Fannie Mae facility were showing up to work in person.
“We removed the two senior executives,” Pulte said of the removal of Fannie Mae Board Chair Michael Heid and Freddie Mac Chair Lance Drummond. “DEI is dead at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. They are safe and sound businesses, but we are going to make them safer and stronger.”
In a regulatory filing, Fannie Mae said Heid and seven other board members were removed by Pulte’s Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Monday, with five board members, including CEO Priscilla Almodovar, keeping their seats.
In addition to Pulte, the FHFA appointed three new directors to Fannie Mae’s board — Clinton Jones, Christopher Stanley and Michael Stucky.
Jones — the FHFA’s general counsel — was also appointed to Freddie Mac’s board.
Stanley, a DOGE staffer and security engineer at Space X and X, is a “key Musk ally” who could gain access to Fannie Mae data as a member of its board, Bloomberg News reported Tuesday.
New shirt, who dis? pic.twitter.com/hRYxh4SnqV
— Christopher Stanley (@cstanley) February 26, 2025
Freddie Mac reported that the FHFA removed Drummond and five other directors from its board. In addition to Pulte and Jones, Brandon Hamara and Ralph “Cody” Kittle were named as new additions to the Freddie Mac board.
Hamara is the vice president of land acquisition at homebuilder Tri Pointe Homes Inc., a Nevada-based homebuilder that completed 6,460 homes last year. Kittle is a partner at RenWave Kore, a Greenwich, Connecticut-based private equity firm.
Fannie Mae declined to comment on the shakeup of the company’s board. Freddie Mac and the FHFA did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Much of the discussion about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the wake of the November election has centered on whether Trump will revive attempts to privatize Fannie and Freddie by releasing them from conservatorship.
Depending on how privatization is implemented, homebuyers might end up paying higher mortgage rates if investors who fund most mortgages perceive that they’re stuck with more of the risk. Rather than making loans, Fannie and Freddie guarantee payments to investors in mortgage-backed securities backed by loans that meet their standards.
At his confirmation hearing, Pulte assured lawmakers that while Fannie and Freddie can’t remain under government stewardship forever, “any exit from conservatorship must be carefully planned to ensure the safety and soundness of the housing market without upward pressures on mortgage rates.”
Industry groups including the Mortgage Bankers Association, the Community Home Lenders of America (CHLA), and U.S. Mortgage Insurers (USMI) last week welcomed the Senate’s confirmation of Pulte to lead the FHFA.
In a letter to Pulte Tuesday, a trade association representing independent mortgage banks voiced support for the FHFA director’s pledge to eliminate “waste, fraud and abuse,” but asked that any cuts to staffing or spending not reduce services.
“In your Senate Banking Committee confirmation hearing, you stated that you ‘will work to eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse wherever it exists’ and will be ‘laser focused on ensuring that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac operate in a safe and sound manner,’” the Community Home Lenders of America (CHLA) wrote Pulte.
“CHLA wholeheartedly supports these objectives,” the group said. “However, we ask that any cuts in FHFA staff or in [Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac] costs not result in the enterprises reducing their broad base of seller-servicers.”
The CHLA also pleaded with Pulte that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac not return to policies requiring lenders to repurchase performing loans with technical defects, “that harmed lenders and borrowers alike.”
Mortgage giants’ net worth hits $154.3 billion
Source: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac earnings reports.
The Trump administration, through DOGE, has been intent on cutting payrolls and programs across the federal government.
Mass layoffs and program cutbacks at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) and Ginnie Mae are being undertaken without analyzing how they could impact the stability of the U.S. mortgage finance system, National Housing Conference President and CEO David Dworkin warned last month.
Although Fannie and Freddie have been operating under government conservatorship since 2008, their programs are self-funded and their employees do not work for the government.
Last month, the mortgage giants reported 2024 profits totaling $28.9 billion, which helped boost their combined net worth to $154.3 billion.
Together, Fannie and Freddie employ more than 16,000 workers, the majority in the Washington, D.C., metro area.
As of Jan. 31, Freddie Mac had 8,076 full-time employees, up slightly from 8.004 at the same point in 2023. Fannie Mae reported that it had about 8,200 employees as of December 2024, up from 8,100 at the end of 2023.
Get Inman’s Mortgage Brief Newsletter delivered right to your inbox. A weekly roundup of all the biggest news in the world of mortgages and closings delivered every Wednesday. Click here to subscribe.
Email Matt Carter
Credit: Source link
