Still All Talk, But There's Action

After years of back-and-forth and shoulds, woulds and coulds, some on Capitol Hill finally took a step toward GSE reformation that extends beyond mere talk. The Federal Housing Finance Agency last week unveiled a strategic plan that would help prepare the market for their eventual absence.

The plan has three main components: build a new infrastructure for the secondary mortgage market; gradually contract the GSEs’ dominant presence in the market while simplifying and shrinking their operations; and maintain foreclosure prevention activities and credit availability for new and refinanced mortgages.