President Obama Outlines Housing Finance Reform Principles

Housing Finance Reform

On August 6, President Obama delivered remarks on federal housing policy, which included the President’s four core principles for single-family housing finance reform: (i) creating a larger role for private capital in the mortgage market, (ii) protecting taxpayers from future mortgage market bailouts, (iii) preserving access to safe and simple mortgage products like the 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage, and (iv) ensuring affordability for first-time buyers. In connection with the speech, the White House released a housing fact sheet with more detail on those principles and other administration housing policy positions. On August 7, the President participated in a question and answer session on housing in which he expressed support for the concepts included in the bipartisan Senate housing finance reform bill introduced in June. The President did not comment on the bill passed last month by the House Financial Services Committee.