CNNMoney.com
Companies Economy International Corrections Pre-market Trading After-hours Trading Winners/Losers/Actives Bonds Currencies Commodities World Markets Money Magazine Real Estate Taxes Jobs Ask the Expert Money 101 Autos Mutual Funds The Help Desk Loan Center Best Places to Live Ask the Expert Ultimate Guide to Retirement Retirement Calculators Best Funds Best Places to Retire Fortune Brainstorm Tech Apple 2.0 Blog Big Tech Blog Sectors and Stocks Tech Talk Resource Guide Small Business Makeovers Questions & Answers Small Business Video 100 Best Places to Launch FSB 100 Fortune Small Business Fortune 500 Brainstorm Tech Investing Management C-Suite Rankings Main Create Portfolio Edit Portfolio Create Alerts Edit Alerts

Fannie, Freddie rescue won't end housing woes

Bailout of Fannie and Freddie might lower mortgage rates but it's unlikely to lead to a quick turnaround for the troubled housing market.

EMAIL  |   PRINT  |   SHARE  |   RSS
 
google my aol my msn my yahoo! netvibes
Paste this link into your favorite RSS desktop reader
See all CNNMoney.com RSS FEEDS (close)
By Chris Isidore, CNNMoney.com senior writer

Do you think the government takeover of mortgage buyers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac was a good move?
  • Yes. It just might save the housing market
  • No. It’s too risky to taxpayers
  • It’s too soon to say

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The federal government's takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac may save the battered real estate market from a complete meltdown. But financial experts say the bailout won't lead to a housing recovery just yet.

Instead, some on Wall Street said the housing sector is in as tough shape today as it was before Sunday's rescue by the Treasury Department.

"This isn't curing the patient. This is preventing the patient from developing a new problem he can't survive," said Barry Ritholtz, CEO and director of equity research, Fusion IQ.

Ritholtz and others pointed to a series of problems plaguing housing that the bailout of Fannie (FNM, Fortune 500) and Freddie (FRE, Fortune 500) does little, if anything, to address.

In particular, there is still a large supply of unsold homes on the market and an increasing number of foreclosures that threatens to add to the glut.

What's more rising unemployment and increased job losses should add to the woes for lenders, brokers, builders and others tied to the housing sector.

"Now we have a recession,'" said Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research.

Baker added that even with home prices declining at a rate not seen since the Great Depression, the housing bubble hasn't completely deflated yet.

In fact, some argue that considering the rise in home prices during 1996 to 2006 when compared to inflation, incomes and rents during the same period, home values need to fall another 50% in order to get back to normal.

Bailout should lead to lower mortgage rates...

Still, the Fannie and Freddie rescue is likely to help bring mortgage rates down.

That's because it should help lower the gap between mortgage rates and Treasury bills, a spread that had risen in recent months on investor concerns about the firms and the rising mortgage defaults.

Fannie and Freddie also warned last month that they would cut back on the growth of their mortgage loan portfolios as they tried to preserve the capital they would need to cover rising losses.

With the Treasury Department now standing behind the firm, most experts expect additional money will be made available to mortgage lenders.

Those two factors prompt some to believe that the rescue will be a significant help for housing markets, even if it doesn't solve all the problems.

"You're going to have to work through all those other issues in order for there to be a meaningful recovery," said Timothy Speiss, head of the wealth management arm of accounting firm Eisner LLP. "But this is a significant step in the right direction: improving credit availability and affordability."

...but it's not a 'magic wand'

Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors, said his group's members are hoping lower rates will help change the attitude of potential buyers about whether it's a safe time to re-enter the market.

"Whether it's a game changer or not, we can't say. We have to see how far rates fall, or whether or not they continue to lack confidence even with these low rates," he said.

Thus, even if the bailout does have a positive impact on the real estate market, one economist said it will probably be limited and relatively slow to take effect.

"By no means is this a magic wand to rejuvenate the housing recession that has just entered its fourth year," said Rich Yamarone, director of economic research at Argus Research.  To top of page

Features
  • karolyne_sosa_film_producer.04.jpg
    Anne Giapapas has a job in one of the 15 most overworked and underpaid professions. More
  • heels.04.jpg
    These 5 businesses are offering their services -- from shoes to hair cuts -- to the unemployed. More
  • mark_zuckerberg__2007.04.jpg
    These rising stars, like Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, have great jobs to fill. Here's what they're looking for. More
  • whitney_wise.04.jpg
    They graduated into the worst economy in decades. Here's how 11 grads are getting by. More
  • masoud_modarres.04.jpg
    For some, getting laid off ends up being the ultimate opportunity. More
  • james_murdoch.04.jpg
    Executives like News Corp. chairman James Murdoch raked it in. Where the other 19 rank. More
  • lincoln_ne.ju.04.jpg
    These 5 cities have the fastest-growing foreclosure rates. And they're not the usual suspects. More
Markets Last Change
Dow Jones 10,246.97 20.03 / 0.20%
Nasdaq 2,151.08 -2.98 / -0.14%
S&P 500 1,093.01 -0.07 / -0.01%
10-year Bond 101 6/32 Yield: 3.47%
U.S.Dollar 1 euro = $1.503 0.005
November 10, 2009 12:00 AM ET
CompanyPrice% Change
Beazer Homes USA Inc 5.11 8.96%
Fluor Corp 44.27 -7.79%
YRC Worldwide Inc 1.10 -6.78%
ArvinMeritor Inc 9.23 6.22%
Nov 10 3:53pm ET †
More Galleries
6 most fuel-efficient cars These vehicles top their class in fuel economy while offering strong performance, too. More
Pieces of Madoff Many of Bernie Madoff's victims would like to have a piece of the felonious financier. Now they can. This week hundreds of his and Ruth's possessions go up for auction. More
Inside Donald Trump's private jet The real estate mogul's upgrading to a larger private jet, so his 1968 Boeing 727, estimated to cost between $4 million and $8 million, is on the market. More

© 2009 Cable News Network. A Time Warner Company. All Rights Reserved. Terms under which this service is provided to you. Privacy Policy
Copyright © 2009 BigCharts.com Inc. All rights reserved. Please see our Terms of Use.
MarketWatch, the MarketWatch logo, and BigCharts are registered trademarks of MarketWatch, Inc.
Intraday data provided by Interactive Data Real-Time Services and subject to the Terms of Use.
Intraday data is at least 20-minutes delayed. All times are ET.
Historical, current end-of-day data, and splits data provided by Interactive Data Pricing and Reference Data.
Fundamental data provided by Morningstar, Inc..
SEC Filings data provided by Edgar Online Inc..
Earnings data provided by FactSet CallStreet, LLC.