The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) recently announced that it will begin selling large blocks of its residential housing inventory. They wil be offereing teh real estate blocks to qualified institutional investors. The agency hopes that the move will help get more housing options back on the market and keep more homeowners in their homes. Acting FHFA director Edward DeMarco has also expressed confidence that the program will help stabilize neighborhoods and housing prices. Naturally, not everyone believes that this program wil positively affect the real estate market. In fact, real estate agents in Florida recently reiterated the concern first voiced by the California Association of Realtors (CAR). CAR expressed concern that the FHFA program could have a “negative economic impact to the state’s housing market and cost to taxpayers”.
CAR president LeFrancis Arnold offers insight in commenting that that “we are disappointed that Fannie Mae and the FHFA fail to understand that this initiative will harm the communities in which it will be implemented and are going forward with this ill-conceived plan.” One of the problems and complaints with the bulk sales program is that many belive that iut is secretive since details have not been made public. The FHFA is “refusing to disclose any details, such as property locations, final property count, sales price, or names of winning bidders”. Although the National Association of Realtors (NAR) has not come out against the FHFA’s program in its entirety, this organization too has reservations and recommended in March 2012 that “any bulk-sales program be limited to small geographic areas that need alternatives to individual investors.”
Time wil tell...but as I have stated many times...the government is great at recognizing problems, but it rarely offers a tested, complete solution.
Paddy Deighan J.D. Ph.D
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