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Trump Floats brings Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac publicly. Here is what it could mean for buyers and investors.

President Trump said this week that he could take home the lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Public and take 17 years of federal control over two central parts of the US property market by 17 years -a step that was cheered on by Trump Ally and the well -known Wall Street investor Bill Ackman.

The end of the conservator of Fannie and Freddie, which mortgages guarantee the value of trillion dollars, would be complicated, and critics say that this is risky. A plan to do this in Mr. Trump’s first term in office did not come off. However, the President says that he will “decide” in the near future whether he should try again and points to the return of the companies from the government of 2008.

“Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac do it very well and throws a lot of money, and the time seems to be right,” wrote Mr. Trump on Wednesday about the social social social social of truth and prompted a double -digit rally in shares the next day of Fannie and Freddie, who act more against the counter than on a big change of stock exchange.

The idea of ​​taking the two companies sponsored to the public has been providing some support for years. The lawyers argue that Fannie and Freddie could work better if they are released from federal control. The publication of Fannie and Freddie could also benefit some investors who have bought shares in the companies over the years, and on a later federal excavation of the mortgage giants bets.

One of the greatest and volume – is Ackman, whose hedge fund Pershing Square Capital Management invested over a decade ago in Fannie and Freddie. The company is the largest private owner of Fannie with just more than 115 million shares in accordance with the S&P capital -iq data -worth over 1.2 billion US dollars at the price on Friday. Ackman said in a profit call on Thursday that Pershing Square has around 220 million shares to Fannie and Freddie combined.

Other important owners of the two companies are the capital research and administrative companies, which according to S&P Capital IQ has the largest known participation in Freddie ($ 350 million) and the second largest participation in Fannie (over $ 1 billion). Paulson & Co., founded by the billionaire John Paulson, also invested in Fannie and Freddie, reported the Wall Street Journal in 2021 – although the size of its current share is unclear.

Since Mr. Trump was re -elected last year, Ackman X has publicly urged to end Fannie and Freddie’s federal conservator, and called it for taxpayers who could generate up to 300 billion dollars for the government. In January, Pershing Square put together a presentation entitled “The Art of the Deal”, which made the case more detailed.

“Trump likes large offers and this would be the biggest offer in history. I am confident that he will make it,” Ackman wrote to X.

When Mr. Trump announced on Wednesday that he gave the idea “very serious considerations”, Ackman replied with a thumb high-emoji to X. In the noise sound on Thursday, Ackman said: “(W) is very encouraged by the president’s announcement. Ackman also said on Thursday that the company did not make any plans for the Trump Administration to publish Fannie and Freddie from Conservatory knows.

Famous for his sharp elements Activistinvestment strategy and Betting from pandemicAckman has made waves for its political views in the past few months. He supported Mr. Trump in 2024 and has Target in the leadership of Harvard University because of their treatment of Israel-Hamas War Protests.

Skeptics, Fannie and Freddie, such as the democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren, have pushed the idea back and warn that they could benefit investors to the risk of disturbing the mortgage market.

“(The President) did not come to the congress with a plan for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac – and the last thing we need is to privatize it in a way that rewarded Wall Street and rewarded the real estate prices for people who are already fighting with the purchase of houses,” said Warren, a legislator of Massachusetts and the top democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, -News.

The spokesman for the White House, Harrison Fields, said in a explanation: “The Trump administration is committed to strengthening the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) in order to promote the president’s mission, to restore the dream of residential property for all Americans. To meet presidents. “

Ackmans Pershing Square refused to comment on CBS News. FHFA – The Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac monitored – did not respond to a request for comments.

What are Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac – and why could you be privatized?

The government founded Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac – or, formally, the Federal Mortgage Association and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation – in the 20th century, with Fannie Mae being back on the global economic crisis. You essentially buy mortgages from lenders such as banks and bundle to guaranteed, mortgage-proof securities that can be sold to all types of investors-a space known as a secondary mortgage market.

This work is about bringing more money into the country’s living loan system, which makes it easier for average families to buy a house. Fannie Mae describes himself as the “backbone of the 30-year-old permanent mortgage”.

For decades, Fannie and Freddie were both listed companies, although many observers believed that they had operated with an “implicit guarantee” that the government would enter if both companies wiggled.

But after a mortgage crisis triggered the 2008 recession, the Bush administration exhibited Fannie and Freddie and placed it under the Federal Conservatory to save it from collapse. Since then, the FHFA has effectively checked the two companies. This agreement should not necessarily be permanent, but it took over a decade, with the two companies made billions in payments to the government.

An advance for the government to end its Conservatory of Fannie and Freddie has been brewed for years. Some critics consider companies in the mortgage industry as unfair dominant and believe that they should play a role that should be played by the private sector. Other privatization attacks, such as Ackman, argue that taxpayers could deliver a narrow paw, partly that the government has the right to acquire almost 80% of the shares of both companies in a remnant of the financial crisis.

Opponents of privatization argue that it could increase the mortgage interest, especially if Fannie and Freddie are no longer reversed by the government. How this affects this could depend on how the government decides to end the conservatories and whether it still offers a guarantee. The Krediturgentur Fitch Ratings said that Fannie and Freddie’s debt would evaluate in a similar way to the US government’s debt if the companies maintain a federal baked stop, but if not, they would be rated separately -and could slip if their market dominance shrinks.

The risk of higher mortgage costs could be an important stumbling block with increased interest rates at a time with increased interest rates. Finance Minister Scott Bessent said to Bloomberg at the beginning of this year: “Everything that has to do with a safe and solid publication (from Fannie and Freddie) will weaken the effects of long -term mortgage interest.”

For this reason, Jaret Seiberg, analyst at TD Cowen, said on Friday in a note that the company expects the Trump government to make changes to Fannie and Freddie in a “slower and more conscious” pace than other problems such as tariffs.

“The tariffs may have had an impact on the stock market, but they did not lead to any immediate price increases at Walmart or Dollar General. In contrast, the price for mortgages will react to any summary and approval development,” wrote Seiberg. “This makes the political costs more direct and gives the president less space to change positions like him in the trade.”

During his first term, Mr. Trump’s Ministry of Finance proposed to Fannie and Freddies Conservatory. While the first Trump government ultimately did not take this step, it changed some changes to the functioning of the two institutions.

Ackmans Pershing Square called Fannie and Freddie the “unfinished business of the first Trump government” in his presentation in January. The company interpreted a possible roadmap to transform Fannie and Freddie into independent, listed companies: it suggested to bring the first public offers for Fannie and in 2027 for Fannie and 2027 for Freddie and then enable the federal government to sell its shares over five years.

But it is unclear how – or whether – the Trump administration can follow the idea. In his hearing for confirmation in the Senate at the beginning of this year, the FHFA director William Pulte said that he believed that every end to state control by Fannie and Freddie must be “extremely thoughtful”.

“While your conservatory should not be indefinite, an exit from the conservatory must be carefully planned to ensure the safety and sound of the real estate market without upward printing on mortgage interest,” said Pult.

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