Mortgage bankers prod Obama to make first move on housing reform

{mosads}The group is pushing a set of five relatively technical changes to the housing market, ranging from having Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac issue just one type of security rather than different ones, to encouraging private parties to step in and assume some of the risk on mortgages backed by the entities.

The crux of the association’s push is that these steps could be done unilaterally by the executive branch, bypassing the sticky wicket of congressional haggling that has bedeviled housing reform talks ever since the subprime mortgage bubble burst.

“There’s not a lot of politics at risk here,” said Stevens. “You don’t need press releases on this. This is work.”

Stevens, who previously served during Obama’s first term as head of the Federal Housing Administration, said his group has been in touch with housing regulators and the Treasury Department, and is trying to make the case for action.

The White House has been relatively mum on the housing reform front, with the most notable effort coming in the form of a white paper released in the beginning of 2011. That document did not push a particular approach to housing finance reform, merely laying out a set of options for overhauling the market.

A significant player in any early efforts to tweak the housing system is Edward DeMarco, the acting director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), which oversees Fannie and Freddie. DeMarco has headed the agency since 2009, and the White House has struggled to get a replacement in place.

DeMarco has become a frequent target of groups on the left, who contend that he is blocking efforts to relieve struggling homeowners.

The White House has nominated Rep. Mel Watt (D-N.C.) to replace DeMarco, but he has faced some Republican opposition. The Senate Banking Committee is set to vote on Watt’s nomination Tuesday.

Stevens suggested that getting a regular FHFA director in place would help efforts to move the housing finance system along.

“I think Ed has been a thoughtful, conservative steward,” he said. “He’s taken some action, but he’s doing it in a relatively isolated way.”