The Obama administration has announced a government retreat from the housing market, potentially raising the cost of mortgages and ending the decades-old push for ever greater home ownership.
Proposals in a white paper released on Friday would wind down Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the “government-sponsored enterprises” that have received billions of dollars of taxpayer money to prevent their failure. With other government programmes they now support more than 90% of the mortgage market.
Financial Times 12/02/11 page 8
