SitusAMC's On The Hill

Hamish Hume, partner with Boies Schiller Flexner, discusses his victorious $612 million, breach-of-contract lawsuit on behalf of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac shareholders. In August 2023, a Washington D.C. jury found the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), the regulator of Fannie and Freddie, acted improperly when it implemented the “net worth sweep” in 2012, and diverted their profits to the federal government instead of paying dividends to shareholders. The sweep was established after Fannie and Freddie failed and were put into conservatorship in September 2008 during the Global Financial Crisis.

Tim Rood speaks with Mark Calabria, Former Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), about policy trends in the year ahead and his new book, "Shelter from the Storm: How a COVID Mortgage Meltdown Was Averted."

Tim Rood talks with Mick Mulvaney, Actum Strategic Advisers Co-Chair and Former Acting White House Chief of Staff; and Eric Blankenstein, an attorney and former Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at Ginnie Mae. They discuss how federal dominance of the mortgage market has stifled innovation, legislated the risks private lenders can take and changed American attitudes about mortgage obligations.

Tim Rood speaks with David Stevens, CEO of Mountain Lake Consulting, and former President and CEO of the Mortgage Bankers Association. Stevens, a four-decade veteran of the housing and mortgage industry and former FHA Commissioner, discusses the numerous challenges plaguing the market, and the need for coordinated solutions.

Tim Rood speaks with Ed Delgado, managing director of Mortgage Policy Advisors, and Blake Hastings, SVP of corporate strategy and chief economist for SWBC, a financial services firm, about their new research report covering opportunities and challenges for the housing and mortgage markets from an economic perspective.

Tim Rood talks with Wes Iseley, Senior Managing Director, Carrington Holding Company, about his 40-year career in the mortgage industry, his current position leading a Top 10 GNMA Seller-Servicer-Issuer, the outlook for the housing industry and more.

Tim Rood talks with Stan Middleman, Founder and CEO of Freedom Mortgage, one of the nation's largest mortgage lenders and servicers. Middleman discusses his childhood in Philadelphia, his journey into the business during sky-high interest rates in the 1980s, lessons of the Great Financial Crisis, and sustainable strategies to promote homeownership without driving price inflation.

Tim Rood talks with David Dworkin, president and CEO of the National Housing Conference, the nation’s oldest bi-partisan housing coalition. They discuss policy solutions and regulatory reforms needed to address the affordability crisis, boost housing production, encourage mortgage lending for middle- and lower-income buyers, and foster sustainable homeownership.

Tim Rood talks with CNBC reporter Diana Olick, who covers the real estate and climate beats, about rising interest rates, turmoil in the banking sector, and how stresses on regional lenders could reverberate throughout the real estate industry, as well as her career in journalism.

In the latest episode of On the Hill, Tim Rood, SitusAMC’s Head of Government and Industry Relations, talks with John Bell, Executive Director of the Department of Veterans Affairs Home Loan Guaranty program. Bell started his current role in June 2022 after a dozen years with the VA, an extensive career in the mortgage industry and his service in the Navy.  

 

Bell talks about how the VA program’s share of the total single-family market rose to about 12% today from 1% after the Great Financial Crisis, by increasing participation among top lenders and servicers, and making the mortgage a product of choice among veteran borrowers. Rood and Bell also discussed the VA’s two-year-old modernization initiative, designed to increase the exchange of data and improve transparency and efficiency.