The bombshell report late Monday that Bill Pulte, the new head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), had replaced 14 board members at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and installed himself as chairman of both boards came as a shock to many in the mortgage and housing industries. The FHFA oversees those government-sponsored mortgage companies, so Pulte’s new roles give him even more control over the direction of Fannie and Freddie.
What does Pulte’s power play mean for the future of Fannie and Freddie? Marty Green, a principal with the law firm Polunsky Beitel Green LLP, thinks that the board shakeups will accelerate Fannie and Freddie’s departure from FHFA conservatorship.
“I think it increases the odds fairly significantly that we see Fannie and Freddie exit conservatorship at some point during the next four years,” Green told Scotsman Guide. He added that he expects the process to start before the 2026 midterm elections.
In addition to Pulte, who is in his late 30s, many of the other newcomers to the Fannie and Freddie boards are relatively young, Green said. One incoming Fannie Mae board member, Christopher Stanley, is an acolyte of Elon Musk who has worked at both X and SpaceX, according to his LinkedIn profile. More recently, he was tapped by Musk for an unspecified role in the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), according to The New York Times.
Green said that Stanley is an “unusual person to be appointed” to the Fannie Mae board of directors due to his youth and a lack of experience in the mortgage industry. He noted that Stanley’s appointment may extend DOGE’s influence.
“He may bring a great, fresh perspective. There’s certainly cybersecurity issues when you look at the mortgage data and other things that Fannie and Freddie have that are still going to be important,” Green said. “But the fact that he has such a close connection with Elon Musk and that he works at SpaceX as well, and that he’s on the DOGE team, makes that something that’s going to give them a lot more influence and insight as a result of that appointment.”
The 14 members of the boards who were ousted by Pulte were older and had more experience in the housing and mortgage industries. One member, Simon Johnson, a British-American economist, won a Nobel Prize in economics.
Green acknowledges that the optics of Pulte heading both the FHFA and the Fannie and Freddie boards “probably aren’t perfect” from a corporate governance and oversight standpoint. But he believes that Pulte’s background as a former board member of homebuilding company PulteGroup Inc. will translate well to his new role.
“We think that overall he will be a friend to the housing industry just because of his history with Pulte Homes,” Green said.
