Much of the messaging from federal officials is highly controlled these days, so it was refreshing to see two housing leaders from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) talk freely for nearly an hour at the Mortgage Bankers Association’s annual conference.
Maybe it helped that both are both MBA alums: Joseph Gormley, president of Ginnie Mae and acting Federal Housing Administration (FHA) commissioner, and Matt Jones, deputy assistant secretary for single-family housing at the FHA and President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the agency.
In a panel moderated by MBA Chair Owen Lee, they said HUD is working on reducing industry costs, attracting more lenders and private capital into government-backed housing finance and expandin...
