Bill Pulte, the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), has been tight-lipped with the media about his plans for the government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs). Pulte has used the social media platform X over the past few weeks to post announcements such as leadership changes at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Since taking the helm at the FHFA in March, Pulte has made sweeping changes to the GSEs, such as terminating special purpose credit programs (SPCPs), canceling $6.4 million in “DEI nonsense” and establishing a mortgage fraud tip line.
On Wednesday, Anthony Pompliano, the founder and CEO of Professional Capital Management, posted a video of a “recent conversation” between him and Pulte on X. Pompliano asked Pulte about his plans to lower interest rates and housing costs while increasing government productivity.
“We have 16,000 people at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and most, if not all of them, 90% of them, were working from home still. … How can we help write mortgages if we don’t have people working in the office?” Pulte said.
“So we’ve ordered everybody back to work. People are very happy to be back to work. We’re going to see productivity increase. We’re also taking costs out. … Now, the other thing that we’re doing, in addition to taking out costs, is looking at rolling back all of the Biden (administration’s) onerous regulations, stuff that wasn’t needed,” he added.
Pulte expressed confidence in President Donald Trump‘s plans to lower inflation and interest rates. He was also asked about the potential of returning the GSEs to the private sector.
“Conservatorship shouldn’t be forever. However, I think that if it’s to be done, it needs to be done extremely thoughtfully and carefully,” Pulte said. “And [Treasury] Secretary (Scott) Bessent and I are very much aligned. And also I think that the president, ultimately, will be obviously in control of this decision and we’ll defer to his experience.
“… I think, first and foremost, is to make sure that anything that’s done doesn’t affect the mortgage market in a negative way.”
When asked about the number of workers he imagines Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac having in four years, Pulte declined to provide an exact figure.
“I don’t want to give a specific number about people and whatnot. … We’re hoping to see that people will elevate and lift themselves up, and start to get productive and come up with ideas to cut costs,” he said.
Tackling fraud
Pulte has been vocal on X about his plans to control and mitigate rampant fraud in the industry.
“Mortgage fraud is a big problem. And in my opinion, mortgage fraud contributes to excessive costs, because if you have fraud and people can’t depend on certain things, and they can’t depend on representations, they have to price in that risk of fraud,” Pulte told Pompliano. “We can’t have another 2008 again.”
Pulte added that he’s observed cases of income fraud, occupancy fraud and people “fudging the numbers” on loan applications.
Over the long term, Pulte discussed “restoring the American dream” and working alongside Scott Turner, the secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
“I don’t think people understand how bad the housing market was under Biden, and I don’t think that they understand the damage that was done with all of this bureaucracy that we’re now having with federal housing,” he said.
“I mean, you add all of this kind of compliance and all this type of stuff, and that, coupled with the inflation under Biden, it was a big problem, and we’re working very hard to reverse it.”
When asked about the 10-year Treasury, Pulte did not comment on a “magic number” that would “unlock” the housing market.
“I’ll just say this, I don’t think that the tariffs were or are as impactful as many had feared on the housing and homebuilding industry,” Pulte stated.
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